ARS | Publication request: Species Boundaries and Interrelationships of Solanum Sect. Petota (Wild and Cultivated Potatoes) are Drastically Altered as a Result of PBI-Funded Research

Submitted to: ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meeting Abstracts
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: June 9, 2009
Publication Date: November 2, 2009
Citation: Spooner, D.M., Ames, M., Fajardo, D., Rodriguez, F. 2009. Species Boundaries and Interrelationships of Solanum Sect. Petota (Wild and Cultivated Potatoes) are Drastically Altered as a Result of PBI-Funded Research [abstract]. ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meeting Abstracts. Paper No. 54478.

Technical Abstract: In 1990, the latest comprehensive taxonomic monograph of Solanum section Petota Dumort recognized 232 species partitioned into 21 series. PBI-sponsored research has drastically altered knowledge of their species boundaries and interrelationships. The series contains diploids (2n = 2x = 24), tetraploids (2n = 4x= 48), and hexaploids (and rare triploids and pentaploids). We have approached problems of species boundaries and interrelationships of sect. Petota with morphological phenetics in replicated field trials in the U.S. and Peru, field studies in natural habitats, AFLPs, plastid DNA restriction site data and plastid deletion data, DNA sequences of nuclear orthologs waxy, nitrate reductase, and conserved orthologous set (COSII) markers, and herbarium specimen data, including an examination of nearly all type specimens. Three species Hawkes placed in sect. Petota are now removed to sect. Etuberosum (Buk. & Kameraz) Child (S. etuberosum Lindl., S. fernandezianum Phil, S. palustre Poepp.), two species removed to sect. Lycopersicoides (A. Child) Peralta (Solanum lycopersicoides Dunal, Solanum sitiens I. M. Johnston), and two species to section Juglandifolia (Rydberg) A. Child (Solanum juglandifolium Dunal, Solanum ochranthum Dunal). Within sect. Petota, most series are unsupported, replaced by a three clade classification), with some of the polyploids supported as allopolyploids with parents among these clades. Our final taxonomic treatment, in preparation in on-line form (http://www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/research/projects/solanaceaesource/), as printed monographs, is recognizing only about half (120) of the 232 species of Hawkes. These comprehensive treatments are encompassing all components of traditional monographs, to include keys, synonyms, typifications, descriptions, images of representative types, distribution maps, line drawings of all recognized species, and over 15,500 locality records of herbarium specimens.