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AOBPreview published online on October 14, 2008
Annals of Botany, doi:10.1093/aob/mcn193
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© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Annals of Botany Company. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Delimitation of Sauropus (Phyllanthaceae) Based on Plastid matK and Nuclear Ribosomal ITS DNA Sequence Data

Kanchana Pruesapan1,*, Ian R. H. Telford2, Jeremy J. Bruhl2, Stefano G. A. Draisma1 and Peter C. Van Welzen1

1 National Herbarium of the Netherlands, Leiden University, PO Box 9514, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands
2 N.C.W. Beadle Herbarium & Botany–School of Environmental and Rural Science, University of New England, Armidale, NSW 2351, Australia

* For correspondence. E-mail pruesapan{at}nhn.leidenuniv.nl

Received: 16 April 2008    Returned for revision: 26 June 2008    Accepted: 11 September 2008   

Background and Aims: A recent molecular phylogenetic study showed that Sauropus is deeply embedded within Phyllanthus together with its allies, Breynia and Glochidion. As relationships within Sauropus are still problematic and the relationship with Breynia has long been doubted, more molecular data are needed to test/corroborate such a broad definition of Phyllanthus. This study aims to clarify the status and delimitation of Sauropus and establish its position within Phyllanthaceae.

Methods: Plastid matK and nuclear ribosomal ITS DNA sequence data for Sauropus and its allies were used to construct phylogenetic trees using maximum parsimony and Bayesian methods.

Key Results: Within Phyllanthus, Sauropus can be split into the mainly south-east Asian Sauropus sensu stricto (s.s.) plus Breynia and the mainly Australian Sauropus (formerly Synostemon). Sauropus s.s. plus Breynia comprise two distinct clades; one is the combination of Sauropus sections Glochidioidei, Sauropus and Schizanthi and the other is the combination of Sauropus sections Cryptogynium and Hemisauropus and the monophyletic genus Breynia.

Conclusions: Molecular data indicate that Synostemon should be reinstated at the same level as Sauropus s.s. and that Sauropus s.s. should be united with Breynia under the latter, older name. The molecular data corroborate only two of the five infrageneric groups of Sauropus recognized on the basis of morphological data.

Key words: Breynia, DNA sequence data, Euphorbiaceae, ITS, matK, molecular phylogenetics, Phyllanthaceae, Sauropus, Synostemon


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