Species delimitation of Noccaea aucheri (Brassicaceae) species complex using high-throughput genomic data and numerical taxonomy

In this study, species limits of N. aucheri species complex which is endemic to serpentine areas of Turkey and transferred from Pseudosempervivum to Noccaea recently were investigated. High-throughput genomic data and numeric taxonomical methods have been used together with the field studies carried out to accurately draw the boundaries of the species in the complex, to solve taxonomic problems, and to update suspiciously distribution data. Study materials were obtained from both field and herbarium studies. For numeric taxonomical analysis, in addition to the characters given in the literature and used to distinguish these species, many different characters have been measured and studied. In addition, coalescent-based phylogenomic analyzes and species delimitation methods were performed at the population level with 200 loci sequenced randomly from different regions of the genome using the restriction site associated DNA markers (RADseq) sequencing method. All results were integrating with morphological, geographic, and also ecological data and eventually, it has been found that the members of this species complex represent a single polymorphic species. As a result, N. mummenhoffiana and N. sempervivum were placed under the name N. aucheri because of the priority rule, and the new description was prepared for this polymorphic species.