Morphological and molecular phylogenetic investigation of some genus of Rosaceae family (aria, hedlundia, Sorbus and Torminalis) in Turkey

Aria (Pers.) Host, Hedlundia Sennikov & Kurtto, Sorbus L. ve Torminalis Medik. genera are systematically located in the Amygdaloideae subfamily of the Rosaceae, have many taxa, hybrids and garden forms, and taxonomic difficulties are experienced in the differentiation of species due to hybridizations and polyploidy observed within the genus. In this thesis study, which was carried out to establish the taxonomy and phylogeny of the species belonging to these genera in Turkey, the morphological and molecular characters of 18 taxa that were previously included in the genus Sorbus were examined. As a result of taxonomic studies, it was observed that all taxa except S. aucuparia and S. subfusca are synonymous. In the light of the data obtained from the International Data Bank of Plant Names (IPNI) and Catalogue of Life=COL and the data obtained as a result of the analyzes in this study: 4 species of Aria, 7 species of Hedlundia, 2 species of Sorbus and 1 of Torminalis in Turkey has been identified. Due to the high similarity in the morphological characters of these species, it has been observed that it is very difficult to distinguish them from each other precisely. In order to reveal the distinction between species more clearly, 4 different gene regions (matK, ITS, RbcL, LEAFY2) were studied, and both intra-species and inter-genus phylogeny were tried to be observed with matK and ITS gene sequences. The nuclear gene region (ITS) used in phylogenetic analyzes gave better results than the chloroplast gene region and the barcoding region (matK). In phylogenetic and morphological studies, S. subfusca is included in the genus Aria, S. caucasica var. yaltrikii is a synonym of H. armeniaca and S. caucasica should be evaluated as a new species within the genus Hedlundia. Although it was determined that S. aucuparia and T. glaberrima samples showed different branching within themselves, sampled from Turkey in the phylogenetic analyzes performed with the ITS gene region, no high variation was found. It has been supported that S. turcica, S. taurica S. umbellata and S. graeca are both morphologically and phylogenetically included in the genus Aria. Ten of the 14 detected species were subjected to molecular analyzes for the first time in this study, and different gene region sequences were created. Identification keys were created for the genus Aria, Hedlundia, Sorbus and Torminalis in Turkey, detailed descriptions of the species were made, and information on their distribution in Turkey and the world, as well as field photographs, hazard categories and local names of these species were given.