PHYLOGENETIC RELATIONSHIPS OF GERANIUM SPECIES IN DIFFERENT REGIONS OF TURKEY

Abstract

Most of the Geranium species are cultivated as medical plants and its roots are used in classical medicine, tanning, and staining. In this study, we phylogenetically analysed the 18S-26S rDNA the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) gene of Geranium species collected from different regions of Turkey to reveal the genetic diversity of them. Six haplotypes were found within all Geranium samples collected from Turkey by creating phylogenetic trees with neighbour joining (NJ), maximum-parsimony (MP) and maximum-likelihood (ML) algorithms. The relationship between our haplotypes and Geranium species was well supported based on nucleotide sequence similarity and the pairwise genetic divergence analyses. Six haplotypes obtained in this study were clearly appeared in the same lineage with Geranium gracile, Geranium ibericum, Geranium asphodeloides, Geranium microphyllum, Geranium sp., Geranium dissectum. In addition, Geranium microphyllum, Geranium sp. and Geranium dissectum are the first reported by molecular phylogenetic analyses based on rDNA-ITS gene within all investigated Geranium samples collected from Turkey.