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Article

Phylogenetic relationships of Mediterranean Hedysarea species assessed by AFLP markers.

CHENNAOUI-KOURDA Houda, MARGHALI Sonia, TRIFI Neila, ZITOUNA Nadia, 2011

Plant Systematics and Evolution, 298, 2012, 51-58, Septembre 2011

Résumé

Mediterranean Hedysarea species constituteimportant phytogenetic resources able to promote forageproduction and to valorize grasslands currently damagedby severe genetic erosion. The study of genetic diversity innine Mediterranean Hedysarea species found in NorthAfrica was performed using the AFLP technique. The eightprimer combinations generated, on the whole, 325 polymorphicbands exhibiting an important genetic diversitythat constitutes an ideal source stock for germplasmselection. The estimation by AFLP analysis of the relativerelationships among six Sulla and three Hedysarum speciesrevealed the genetic nearness of the two analyzed genera asshown by the close relatedness of S. carnosa and Hedysarumspecies. Our investigation suggested a nuclearlineage among the Mediterranean Hedysarea species.Moreover, a common genetic pool among the analyzedspecies indicated a common ancestor H. membranaceumgenerating all the analyzed species. The obtained UPGMAdendrogram exhibited species clustering independentlyfrom their bioclimatic origin. This result was confirmed byPearson’s correlation coefficient (0.097, p = 0.302). Principalcomponent analysis of the obtained AFLP data hasalso show