Biosystematic study in some Tamarix species in Iran

摘要

The genus Tamarix is a medium-sized genus of the Old World with about 54 species. Tamarix species can play an important role in preventing deforestation in Iran. We have no detailed information on Tamarix species, their inter-specific hybrids and the number of intra-specific forms growing in these regions. Therefore, the present work considers morphological and molecular study of the Tamarix taxa growing in three provinces of 1. Chaemahal-o-Bakhteyari, 2. Kerman, and 3. Southern Khorasan for the first time to answer the above mentioned questions and also aimed to produce data on population genetics and population divergence in T. mascatenses that has wider distribution in the studied areas. We identified six species in these provinces based on both morphological and ITS sequences. These species were also delimited by UPGMA tree of morphological characters. Phylogenetic analyses produced three major clades with high bootstrap values (>80.00). HGT tree revealed the occurrence of gene flow between T. meyeri and T. tetragyna, and between T. meyeri and T. stricta. Population genetic study of eight populations in T. mascatensis by SRAP and morphological analyses separated almost all populations in distinct clusters, revealing their genetic and morphological divergence. STRUCTURE plot revealed population genetic fragmentation in T. mascatensis.