Informative chloroplast regions in Ilex paraguariensis and Ilex affinis for phylogenetic and species identification.

TALAVERA STEFANI L.; J. FAY; C. PERCUCO; C. ROJAS; M. MIRETTI; G. SEIJO; C. ARGÜELLES

Foz do Iguazú, Paraná Brasil

Congreso; 11th International Congress of Plant Molecular; 2015

Sociedad Brasilera de Genteica

Argentina contains seven species of the genus Ilex L. (Aquifoliaceae), including I. paraguariensis (yerbamate), which is economically important, and I. affinis, a shrubby species of riparian habitat that wasrecently cited as occurring in Atlantic Forest. Knowing that within the genus the phylogeneticrelationships of I. affinis are still unknown and there is a need for makers that can be used to determinedopants in yerba mate, this work aimed to characterize chloroplast regions that could help inestablishing phylogenetic relationships between I. affinis and other species of the genus in SouthAmerica, as well as differentiate I. paraguariensis from I. affinis. Fifteen individuals (I. paraguariensis=11, I. affinis= 4) were collected from distant natural and cultivated populations of I. paraguariensis fromArgentina and Paraguay and a natural population of I. affinnis from Argentina. DNA sequence analyses ofone intron [trnL] and two intergenic spacers [petG-trnP, psbJ-petA] identified one haplotype for eachspecies showing no intraspecific differences. The haplotype differences were transitions, transversionsand InDels. Phylogenetic relationships were inferred based on the analysis of 469bp of trnL intron,including sequences of eight species of Ilex available in GenBank and considering Helwinia japonica asoutgroup. Our results revealed the existence of two clusters: one grouping Brazilian species and thesecond grouping most of the Argentine species. Inside the latter, I. affinis and I. dumosa were grouped(BS: 0.89). We also demonstrated the relevance of the chloroplast regions in species identification thatcould contribute to determine dopants in yerba mate products.