• Korean Journal of Plant Taxonomy
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• v.37 no.4
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• pp.477-502
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• 2007

The Aconitum alboviolaceum Kom. complex includes four controversial species described from Korea; A. albouiolaceum, A. pseudolaeue, A. longecassidatum, and A. quelpaertense. The main objective of this study was to determine the taxonomic identities and systematic relationships among the species in the A. albouiolaceum complex based on morphology, numerical analyses and DNA sequence analysis. In the present study, variations in the principal morphological characters and chloroplast DNA noncoding region sequences (psbA-trnH IGS, trnL intron, and trnL-trnF IGS) were examined for 95 individuals from 20 populations. Also, neighbor-joining analysis was adopted to infer their relationships. Morphological variation appeared to be considerably high but not to be related to geographic distribution. These morphological results suggest that reevaluation of key morphological characters are needed for the proper taxonomic treatment of the complex. The length of psbA-trnH IGS region ranged from 241 to 250 bp, that of the trnL intron from 526 to 532 bp, and that of the trnL-trnF IGS region from 466 to 472 by in all taxa. Nine haplotypes were recognized from the analysis. Seven populations shared more than two haplotypes, while other thirteen populations shared only one haplotype. In the phylogenetic analysis, the nine haplotypes formed four groups, separated A. sibiricum, one of the sister groups of the complex. There also was no distinct grouping pattern supporting the species and populations observed. These results suggest that introgression or speciation might have been involved in the formation of taxa of A. alboviolaceum complex.

• Korean Journal of Plant Taxonomy
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.13-23
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• 2012

The trnL-F region islocated in the large single-copy region of the chloroplast genome. It consists of the trnL gene, the trnL intron, and the trnL-F IGS. Molecular evolution and phylogenetic relationships in Korean Thalictrum L. were investigated using data from the cpDNA trnL-F region. Bayesian and parsimony analyses of the data set with the gap characteristics recovered well-resolved trees that are topologically similar, with clades supported by some indels evolution. Indel events of cpDNA trnL-F in Korean Thalictrum were interpreted as phylogenetically informative characteristics. Sect. Physocarpum (excluding T. osmorhizoides) was an early-diverging group with in the genus and the remaining section formed strongly supported clades. Korean Thalictrum has various evolutionary patterns, such as the spatial distribution of the nucleotide diversity and transversion-type base substitutions in the trnL-F region.

• Korean Journal of Plant Taxonomy
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.34-45
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• 2013

The Polygonum amphibium complex (Poygonaceae) is a highly polymorphic taxon that can grow in aquatic environments as well as in moist terrestrial habitats. Aquatic and terrestrial plants of the P. amphibium complex vary significantly in morphology and exhibit very complicated patterns of morphological variation, resulting in the description of numerous infra-specific taxa. Principal components analysis of 107 individuals of the P. amphibium complex from Asia and North America using 11 morphological characters showed that the aquatic plants can be discerned from the terrestrial plants by leaf size, shape, and petiole length. In contrast, both aquatic and terrestrial plants collected from the same population or locality shared identical sequences in the matK, psbA-trnH IGS, rbcL-accD IGS and trnL-trnF regions of the chloroplast DNA (cpDNA), suggesting that aquatic and terrestrial forms of the P. amphibium complex are not genetically diverged; morphological differences between the two forms are probably due to the differences in environmental conditions of the habitats. In addition, results from the morphological analysis and the maximum parsimony analysis of the cpDNA data set revealed that the plants from Asia including Korea, Japan, China, Mongolia and Russia Far East are diverged from those in North America and Europe, suggesting that the Asian populations should be recognized as a distinct variety, P. amphibium var. amurense Korsh.

• Korean Journal of Plant Taxonomy
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.353-360
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• 2011

The sequence data of the plastid DNA (trnL-F IGS, trnL intron, and trnH-psbA) and nuclear DNA (RNApol2_i23) markers were utilized to study phylogenetic relationships among the taxa in the Polygonatum odoratum complex (Ruscaceae). European P. odoratum individuals form a clade with a high bootstrap value, which is a sister to the clade of Korean P. odoratum var. odoratum, P. odoratum var. pluriflorum and P. robustum. The formation of the clade with P. odoratum var. odoratum, P. robustum, and one accession of P. odoratum var. pluriflorum indicates geological speciation in isolated populations in the islands following dispersal events from the mainlands. All data sets form two major clades, which are congruent with the subgroups divided by the basic chromosome numbers (x = 9 and x = 10). Although it is not easy to test the hypothesis of the decrease in the basic chromosome number due to scatter taxon sampling in this study, the molecular data strongly suggested that aneuploidy plays an important role in lineage diversification in the genus Polygonatum. The cytological data was not strongly supported by the cpDNA sequences. Further investigations of the cytological, morphological, and geographical characteristics with comprehensive sampling are desired to understand the evolution and lineage diversification in the genus.