Analysis of phylogenetic relationship between sacred lotus and woody plants using nucleotide sequences of rbcL and its adjacent genes

Abstract

            Sacred lotus (Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn.) was morphologically considered the same family of water lilies, Nymphaeaceae, in spite of its difference in palynology and floral development. The further investigation genetic variation was to determine different in polymorphism. The chloroplast rbcL and adjacent genes were selected from three wild-type Thai lotus cultivars, Klong Yong (KY), Nong Nan (NH) and Rachine (RC). The contiguous 3.74 kb of chloroplast DNA was obtained by PCR using three primer pairs comprising of atpB-rbcL intergenic spacer (IGS), rbcL gene, rbcL-accD IGS and partial accD gene. These four regions were compared within Nelumbo species and with ten selected dicotyledonous species. The Neighbor-Joining phylogenetic tree based on rbcL genes and atpB-rbcL and rbcL-accD intergenic spacers indicated that sacred lotus was closely related to woody plants rather than water lilies.

Keywords: Intergenic spacer, Nelumbo, Rubisco, chloroplast, Proteales