Indian Society of Genetics & Plant Breeding
Molecular approaches are playing major role in phylogeny
reconstruction and species relationship studies. The
uniparent inheritance, small size, non recombinant nature
and extremely low rate of evolution of chloroplast genome
make it an appropriate marker for phylogenetic studies. In
the present study, phylogenetic informativeness of two
coding regions, rbcL and rpoC1 and two non-coding
intergenic spacers psbA-trnH and trnL-F of plastid DNA
were analysed for inferring relationships among Cucumis
species. Maximum evolutionary divergence was shown by
trnL-F followed by psbA-trnH region. The non-coding
spacers evolved 1.62 to 9 times faster than coding regions
of rbcL and rpoC1. In the phylogenetic analyses, all species
of Asian origin showed clear divergence from Cucumis
dipsaceus and Cucumis prophetarum, which were African
in origin. Mukia maderaspatana and Dicaelospermum ritchiei
showed very low evolutionary divergence and are reported
close to each other. C. setosus had been confirmed as
distinct species and C. callosus was found to be a wild
progenitor of C. melo.
Keywords: Cucumis, plastid DNA, species relationships
Year: 2015
Volume: 75
Issue: 2
Article DOI: 10.5958/0975-6906.2015.00035.8
Print ISSN: 0019-5200
Online ISSN: 0975-6906
Nidhi Shubhanand, K. V. Bhat info_circle
Madhoolika Agrawal info_circle
K. Joseph John info_circle
Shrikant Sutar, S. R. Yadav info_circle
S. R. Rao info_circle
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