Open AccessGenetic diversity and biogeography of T. officinale inferred from multi locus sequence typing approach
Author(s) -
Mahdi Jafari,
Waheed Akram,
Yanju Pang,
Aqeel Ahmad,
Shakeel Ahmed,
Nasim Ahmad Yasin,
Tehmina Anjum,
Basharat Ali,
Xiangdong Hu,
Xiaohua Li,
Shuang-Lin Dong,
Qian Cai,
Matteo Ciprian,
Monika Bielec,
Sheng Hu,
Fatemeh Sefidkon,
Xuebo Hu
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0203275
Subject(s) - biology , vicariance , biological dispersal , haplogroup , evolutionary biology , phylogeography , population , population genetics , haplotype , phylogenetic tree , genetics , allele , gene , demography , sociology
Taraxacum officinale (Asteraceae) is widely distributed weedy plant used as a traditional medicinal herb. The population genetics and historical biogeography of this plant have remained relatively unexplored. This study explores phylogeny, population genetics and ancestral reconstructions adopting multi locus sequence typing (MLST) approach. MLST sequences dataset was generated from genomics and chloroplast DNA sequences obtained from 31 T . officinale haplotypes located in 16 different countries. Phylogenetic analysis distributed these haplotypes in well differentiated geographic clades. The study suggested a close relationship between Europe and adjacent Asian countries. Populations of these regions predominantly formed common haplogroups, showed considerable level of gene flow and evidence for recombination events across European and Asian population. Biogeographical inferences obtained by applying statistical dispersal-vicariance analysis (S-DIVA) and Bayesian binary MCMC (BBM) analysis showed that T . officinale was putatively originated in Europe. Molecular clock analysis based on ITS dataset suggested that the divergence between Europe and East Asian populations can be dated to 1.07 Mya with subsequent dispersal and vicariance events. Among different spatial process long distance seed dispersal mediated by wind had potentially assisted the population expansion of T . officinale .