Phylogeny And Taxonomy Of The Ficus Auriculata Complex

Ficus auriculata complex belongs to subsect. Neomorphe (Moraceae, Ficus, subg. Sycomorus, sect. Sycomorus). Great morphological variations of this complex exist in the respects of size/shape of leaves and syconia, separation degree of tepals, length of stoloniflorous and et al., which made the related species easily to be confused and left behind perplexing taxonomic problems. In this study, we performed phylogenetic analysis and clustering analysis on the complex. One hundred and twelve in-group samples of F. auriculata and its related species are included. In the phylogenetic analysis, two nuclear sites (ITS and G3pdh) and four chloroplast sites (trnH-psbA, trnL-trnF, trnS-trnG and psbK-psbI) were selected, and 723 new sequences were obtained for phylogenetic trees. The SSR analyses were performed with 15 pairs of fluorescently labeled highly polymorphic primers which include 179 alleles. Conclusions of this study are listed as follows:1. The range of Ficus auriculata complex is confirmed to include F. auriculata, F. oligodon, F. hainanensis, F. beipeiensis and F. variegata. According to the phylogenetic trees resulted from ITS+G3pdh, the aforementioned 5 species compose a monophyly, which got strong support in bayesian analysis. Three south-east Asia species (F. nodosa, Frobusta and F. semivestita) are excluded from the complex. Within the complex, no obvious differentiation is detected. The phylogenetic trees of the four chloroplast genes show low resolution. Samples of F. auriculata, F. oligodon, F. hainanensis, F. beipeiensis and F. variegata mixed together, with samples of F. racemosa, F. tikoua and F. semicordata inserted. It is obviously that the results from the nuclear data and the chloroplast data are inconsistent, so the data sets are not combined in the analysis.2. UPGMA cluster analysis based on SSR data indicated that F. auriculata, F. oligodon, F. hainanensis and F. beipeiensis have close relationships (0.81< SM< 1.00). No obvious differentiation among them was detected. The result of principal coordinate analysis was agreed on the cluster analysis. All samples dispersed in the coordinate, suggesting very close genetic distance among species. Therefore, we suggest that species F. auriculata, F. oligodon, F. hainanensis and F. beipeiensis should be regarded as one.3. F. variegata showed very close affinity to other species in the complex. However, whether it is an isolate species or is a variation of F. auriculata remains a question.