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Systematics Section / ASPT

Barkman, Todd J. [1], Lim, Seok-Hong [1], Mat Salleh, Kamarudin [2], Nais, Jamili [3].

Phylogenetic analysis reveals the photosynthetic relatives of Rafflesia, the world’s largest flower.

Parasitic organisms have evolved independently from free-living ancestors in most of the major lineages of prokaryotes and eukaryotes, but identification of the relatives of highly reduced parasites has proven to be a phylogenetic conundrum in many cases. This is particularly true for Rafflesia, a parasitic angiosperm for which phylogenetic affinities have remained obscure since its description in 1822. As an endophytic parasite completely embedded within its host, Rafflesia emerges only for sexual reproduction when it produces flowers measuring up to 1 meter in diameter and weighing up to 7 kg. We report the results of a phylogenetic analysis of 95 species of seed plants designed to infer the position of Rafflesia in a phylogenetic context using the mitochondrial gene matR (1,806 aligned base pairs). Overall, the phylogenetic tree is highly congruent with independent analyses and suggests a strongly supported placement of Rafflesia within the Malpighiales. Our results indicate that the significant difficulties associated with phylogenetic placement of other holoparasitic plants may be overcome using mitochondrial DNA so that a deeper understanding of the origins and evolution of parasitism may emerge.


1 - Western Michigan University, Department of Biological Sciences, 1903 West Michigan Ave, Kalamazoo, Michigan, 49008, USA
2 - Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, School of Environmental and Natural Resources Science, Bangi, Selangor, 43600, Malaysia
3 - Sabah Parks, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, 88806, Malaysia

Keywords:
Rafflesia
Rafflesiaceae
angiosperm phylogeny
mt DNA
matR.

Presentation Type: Paper
Session: 30-7
Location: Cottonwood B (Snowbird Center)
Date: Tuesday, August 3rd, 2004
Time: 9:45 AM
Abstract ID:493


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