Место издания:TORUS PRESS Moscow, Russian Federation
Первая страница:86
Последняя страница:88
Аннотация:The genus Rhododendron is the largest in the family Ericaceae consisting of above 1200 wild species. The four species of the Kunashir island (Rh. aureum, Rh. brachycarpum, Rh. kamtschaticum, Rh. tschonoskii) are listed in the Red Books of the Russian Federation and Sakhalin Oblast, all being in sparse and rare populations [1, 2]. Among those, Rhododendron brachycarpum D. Don is remarkable for the South Kuril islands. This species was described in Japan in 1834 as Rhododendron brachycarpum D. Don ex G. Don, and in 1886 г. – as Rh. fauriei Franch in Bull. Soc. Philom [3].
Taxonomy of Rh. brachycarpum and Rh. fauriei based solely on morphology raised much dispute, and in this work we used techniques of molecular phylogenetics in an attempt to disentangle its interspecies relationships. The 18S-26S nrDNA internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions and chloroplast marker trnL-trnF were used as molecular markers. ITS and trnL-trnF sequences of other 18 Rhododendron species and the closely related genus Calluna (the outgroup) were taken from GenBank. The resulting Bayesian tree is given in Fig.1.
In our phylogenetic analyses the samples of Rh. fauriei from the Kunashir islands have combined with Rh. brachycarpum from the Hansu and Hokkaido islands in a well-supported clade (B) of cluster 1. Clade (B) cannot be reliably demarcated into smaller units based on shared substitutions. Well-supported clade (A) consists of Rh. fauriei (white flowers and nude leaves) sampled in the Sikhote-Alin Nature Reserve, and the GenBank samples. Clade (A) is marked with solid synapomorphies and is well distinct from clade (B) (Fig. 1). Our analyses support the species status of Rh. fauriei. The Rh. fauriei samples from Kunashir belong to cluster 1 but are sister to clades (A) and (C). Species relationships in clade (B) are not well resolved. The results are to be further verified on broader samplings on islands (Kuril, Hokkaido, Honsu) and the mainland of Primorsky Krai.