Phylogeny of Triticeae (Poaceae) Based on Three Organelle Genes, Two Single-Copy Nuclear Genes, and Morphology

Abstract

Triticeae are renowned for their complicated taxonomy, but their phylogeny is equally intricate and perplexing, and remains largely unresolved. Based on morphology and nucleotide sequences from two plastid genes (rbcL, rpoA), one mitochondrial gene (coxII), and two single-copy nuclear genes (DMC1, EF-G), the most comprehensive hypothesis (both with respect to taxa and data points) of the phylogeny of diploid Triticeae to date is presented. The incongruence length difference tests clearly indicate that the four logical data partitions (morphology and the three genome compartments) are mutually incongruent, except the mitochondrial and nuclear sequences. Nonetheless, a total evidence approach results in a highly resolved, strongly supported consensus tree, though partitioned Bremer support points to a high level of conflict among the individual data sets.