Molecular phylogeny of three groups of acacias (Acacia subgenus Phyllodineae) in arid Australia based on the internal and external transcribed spacer regions of nrDNA

Abstract

The phylogeny of three groups of arid Australian acacias - the Acacia victoriae, A. murrayana and A. pyrifolia groups - was constructed based on parsimony analysis of sequence data from the internal and external transcribed spacers (ITS and ETS) of the nuclear ribosomal DNA. Forty ingroup taxa were sequenced, including multiple accessions for some taxa and two species (A. platycarpa and A. longispinea) that had been identified in other analyses as relatives of these acacias. Acacia anthochaera was used as the functional outgroup. The ITS and ETS regions proved to be sufficiently variable to resolve relationships at both the specific and intra-specific level. Two main clades were resolved. On..