Molecular systematic analysis of the genus alkanna tausch (Boraginaceae) taxa distributed in Turkey

The AlkannaTausch is a small genus consisting of 67 species in the world with a distribution in the Mediterranean and Iranian-Turanian regions. Turkey inhabits more than half of the Alkannaspecies present in the world. The aim of the study was to determine the phylogenetic relationshipsof the Alkanna genus, having country-wide distribution.Because A. viscidulaBoiss., A.stribrnyi Velen.and A. shattuckia Postcould not be collected, instead of 45 taxa (39 species), 42 taxa(36species) were studied. The plant material included 250 samples collected from 100 different geographic location to collect both morphological and molecular data. The partial gene sequences of chloroplast „cpDNA trnL-F‟ and nuclear „nrDNA ITS‟were obtained from the samples and maximum parsimony,maximum likelihood andBayesian phylogenetic analyzes were performed. In analysis ofITSregion, sequences that belong to 25 species known to exist in Turkey and A. pindicolaHausskn., A. sandwithiiRech.f. and A. scardicaGriseb., which do not exist in the country were also retrieved from NCBI.Monophyly of the genus Alkannais highly supported by both the trnL-F and the ITSDNAregions. The ITSregion was found to be more informative than the trnL-Fregion and better resolved the phylogenetic relationships of Alkannataxa. trnL-Fregion was insufficient to solve the phylogenetic relationships of Alkanna taxa.Analyzes made according to the ITSgene sequence indicate two distinct groups in the genus, West and East. This is the first study identifying the groups of the species. Thus, relationshipbetween the phylogenetic of Alkannataxa and their geographic distributions has been determined. When the phytogeographicalregions of the taxa that make up the Eastern and Western species groups are examined, with a few exceptions, the Eastern species group generally consists of taxa belonging to Iranian-Turanianphytogeographicalregion while the Western species group consisted of taxa belonging to Mediterranean phytogeographicalregion. According to habitat preference in eastern and western species groups, it is determined that there is a distinction as taxa growing in soil and rocky areas. Haplotype sharing among different species with sympatric distribution was found quite common.This does not support local differentiation. Haplotype sharing supported the view that inter-species gene pools are not completely separated from each other. ivThe fact that the populations of Akseki and Taşkent A.verecunda, which were previously published as A.angustifoliaSümbül and later synonymed with A. verecundaspecies, have the same ITSgene sequences witha common haplotype and are considered to be thesame species. A. amana, which was previously included in the „Data Deficient (DD)‟class in the IUCN red list, was re-collected from the Amanos mountains in 2015 and transferred to the „Critically Endangered (CR)‟category.In order to revealphylogeneticrelationships of Alkannataxa, morphological data are used in addition to molecular data. Within the scope of morphological studies, a new identification key including the newly added species to the Alkannagenus was created, the genus was described and the description of the species was given. A total of 18 different morphological characters were determined in 42 taxa belonging to the genus Alkannaand maximum parsimony analysis was performed. Phylogenetic trees obtained from the ITSregion partially supported the status of phenotypic taxa within the genus Alkanna.In this study, the statuses of taxa belonging to the genus were tested by using both genetic and phenotypic data. Within the scope of the thesis,Alkannataxa grown in Turkey were examined in terms of phylogenetic relationships based on molecular data. Phylogenetic analysis shed light on kinship relationships and their distribution. In this context, this is the first comprehensive study to explain the phylogenetic relationships, based on two different gene regions, of taxa belonging to the Alkannagenus in Turkey. It is concluded that different gene regions should be included in order to fully resolve the phylogenetic relationships of the Alkannagenus.KEYWORDS:Alkanna, ITS, Phylogeny, trnL-F, Turkey