NAKAZATO, TAKUYA* and GERALD J. GASTONY. Department of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405-3700. - Molecular phylogenetics of Anogramma species and related genera (Pteridaceae: Taenitidoideae).
Anogramma Link is a genus of about five species with annual
sporophytes and potentially perennating gametophytes: A.
leptophylla, A. chaerophylla, A. osteniana, A.
lorentzii, and A. ascensionis. Anogramma caespitosa
of east Africa and A. guatemalensis have been segregated from
nearly cosmopolitan A. leptophylla, and A. novogaliciana
from Jalisco, Mexico is said to resemble A. chaerophylla.
Nucleotide sequences of rbcL were determined for all of these
species (except A. ascensionis, which is thought to be extinct,
and A. novogaliciana, material of which is being sought),
including multiple accessions of A. leptophylla from diverse
parts of its range. Also included were species of Pityrogramma
(generally considered most closely related to Anogramma), other
putatively taenitidoid genera, and Cosentinia vellea whose
spore morphology is strikingly similar to that of A.
leptophylla and unlike that of Cheilanthes in which it is
often subsumed. Maximum parsimony cladistic analyses were used to test
1) the monophyly of Anogramma, 2) support for the proposed
specific distinctness of A. guatemalensis and A.
caespitosa, and 3) the asserted close (sister) relationship
between Anogramma and Pityrogramma, and to infer the
phylogenetic relationships among these genera. Results reveal that
Anogramma in the traditional sense is polyphyletic.
Anogramma guatemalensis and A. caespitosa nest within
A. leptophylla. Pityrogramma is not sister to
Anogramma as a whole but only to A. chaerophylla.
Cosentinia vellea should not be subsumed within
Cheilanthes. Anogramma osteniana is well separated from
its traditional congeners. Neighbor joining analysis of an AFLP
(Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism) data set inferred
relationships among the A. leptophylla accessions, embedding
A. guatemalensis in a New World clade and A. caespitosa
in a separate Old World clade.
Key words: AFLP, Anogramma, Cosentinia, Pityrogramma, Pteridaceae, rbcL