ARS | Publication request: Phylogeny of Solanum series Piurana and putatively related series based on morphological and molecular data

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: April 2, 2008
Publication Date: August 5, 2008
Citation: Ames, M., Spooner, D.M. 2008. Phylogeny of Solanum series Piurana and putatively related series based on morphological and molecular data [abstract]. Botany without Borders. p. 145.

Technical Abstract: There are about 190 wild potato species distributed from the southwestern United States to central Argentina and Chile. Their overall morphological similarity has led to widely conflicting taxonomic treatments. Solanum series Piurana is one of 21 series recognized within section Petota. They are distributed from southern Colombia, south through Ecuador, to central Peru. The limits of the series and its constituent species are unresolved. Although series Piurana contains some of the morphologically most distinctive species in the section, its definition as a series has always been controversial. The need to clarify the limits of series Piurana has long been recognized but to date no detailed and comprehensive systematic study has been attempted. Because of uncertainties about the limits of the series, the goal of the present work is to conduct an integrated analysis that considers morphological phenetic and molecular phylogenetic analyses to investigate species definitions and series relationships of series Piurana and putatively related species in series Conicibaccata, Cuneoalata, Ingifolia, Megistacroloba, Olmosiana, Simplicissima, Tuberosa and Yungasensa. We provide the first comprehensive morphological phenetic study of the series through an examination 188 living germplasm accessions of 33 species, planted in replicated plots in a field station in Andean Peru. Only four well-defined phenetic groups were supported. Also we provide preliminary results from the analysis of Conserved Orthologous Sequences (COS) that support the monophyly of these series as well as its constituent species.