Skip to main content
ARS Home » Southeast Area » Fort Pierce, Florida » U.S. Horticultural Research Laboratory » Subtropical Insects and Horticulture Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #269592
Title: Phylogeny of Pistacia (Ancardiaceae) based on chloroplast DNA non-coding spacer sequences

Author
item SYOUF, MAHA - National Center For Agricultural Research And Extension (NCARTT)
item Aradhya, Mallikarjuna
item KOEHMSTEDT, ANN - University Of California
item Velasco, Dianne
item Stover, Eddie

Submitted to: Acta Horticulturae
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/30/2011
Publication Date: 5/20/2012
Citation: Syouf, M.Q., Aradhya, M.K., Koehmstedt, A.M., Velasco, D., Stover, E. 2012. Phylogeny of Pistacia (Ancardiaceae) based on chloroplast DNA non-coding spacer sequences. Acta Horticulturae. 948:113-119.

Interpretive Summary: The genus Pistacia is in the Anacardiaceae family (which also includes mango and cashew). Pistacia vera (the cultivated pistachio) has been cultivated since prehistory and was an early introduction into Mediterranean Europe. Certain chloroplast DNA non-gene-coding regions have been used to compare the relationship among species within several genera, and were used to compare species of Pistacia in this research. All eleven species of Pistacia were sampled from the collection at the National Clonal Germplasm Repository, USDA-ARS, Davis, California. Schinus molle (common names of California peppertree or Peruvian peppertree) was used as an outgroup for comparison to Pistacia, as it is also within the family Anacardiaceae. Chloroplast DNA markers were amplified and sequenced. Statistical methods were used to show relatedness between species. Three well-demarked groups were found, which largely corresponded to subgroups identified through plant characteristics by an earlier researcher. However, P. atlantica was placed in a different subgroup which contains close relatives of the cultivated pistachio in our analyses. Interestingly, the cultivated species P. vera, was not within this subgroup in one of the two analysis methods but instead was isolated as distinctive from the other subgroups. New understanding of the relatedness between these species may help breeders attempting to produce improved types for both nut production and better rootstocks.

Technical Abstract: Pistacia is a member of the Anacardiaceae family that includes at least eleven extant dioecious tree species grouped into four sections with both Old and New World distributions. P. vera was cultivated in prehistoric Iran and was an early introduction into Mediterranean Europe at the Christian Era. In this research all eleven species of Pistacia were sampled from the germplasm collection at the National Clonal Germplasm Repository, USDA-ARS, Davis, California. Schinus molle was used as an outgroup taxon because of its close taxonomic affinity to Pistacia within the family Anacardiaceae. Three cpDNA non-coding spacer regions: trnT-trnF, atpB-rbcL, and rbcL-ORF106 were PCR amplified and sequenced. Phylogenetic analyses were performed with PAUP* 4.0b10 using maximum parsimony (MP) and Neighbor-Joining (NJ) methods. Bootstrap and decay analyses were performed to estimate the support for different nodes. Parsimony analysis using a branch-and-bound search generated eighteen equally most parsimonious trees (MPTs) of 115 steps with a consistency index of 0.913, retention index of 0.899, and homoplasy index of 0.087. Three well-supported monophyletic clades corresponded to the Zohary-proposed sections Lentiscella, Eu-Lentiscus, and Eu-Terebinthus are evident in both MP and NJ analyses. The most variable species, P. atlantica representing the section Butmela is placed within the sect. Eu-Terebinthus in our analyses. Interestingly, the cultivated species P. vera, was not within the section Eu-Terebinthus in the MP tree, but instead placed as a basal sister group to the rest of the species in the NJ tree. In summary, the phylogeny based on sequences from cpDNA non-coding spacer regions largely confirms traditional taxonomic classification within the genus Pistacia.