| Abstract Detail
Symbioses: Plant, Animal, and Microbe Interactions Treiber, Erin L. [1], Weiblen, George [2], Madriñán, Santiago [3]. Exploration of sequence variation for resolving the phylogeny of the Neotropical genus Cecropia. The interaction between the neotropical plant genus Cecropia and ants of the genus Azteca is a classic ant-plant mutualism. Cecropia trees provide shelter and food for ants while Azteca ants protect Cecropia leaves from herbivore damage and remove competing vegetation from Cecropia trees. Lack of phylogeny has hindered evolutionary studies of history of this interaction. In this study, Cecropia sequence variation in five markers was explored for utility in phylogenetic inference. The five markers sequenced were two chloroplast markers, trnH-psbA and psbK-psbI, and three nuclear markers, G3pdh and two EPIC markers. A total of were 2,764 base pairs were sequenced for 52 samples representing 16 species of Cecropia and two outgroup species. Each marker had low variation with approximately 10% parsimony informative characters. Bayesian analysis of the five markers was insufficient to resolve relationships between species. Only nine nodes were resolved with posterior probability >95%. It is likely that conventional markers will not provide enough variation to resolve a species level Cecropia phylogeny. We propose to use next generation DNA sequencing technology to identify genetic variation that could improve our understanding of Cecropia evolutionary history. Broader Impacts:
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1 - University of Minnesota, Plant Biology, 1445 Gortner Avenue, 250 Biological Sciences Center, St Paul, MN, 55108, USA
2 - University of Minnesota, PLANT BIOLOGY, 250 Biological Sciences Center, 1445 Gortner Ave, St. Paul, MN, 55108, USA
3 - Universidad de los Andes, Laboratorio de Botánica y Sistemática, Apartado Aéreo 4976, Bogotá, DC, 00001, Colombia
Keywords:
mutualism
Cecropia
Phylogenetics.
Presentation Type: Poster:Posters for Topics
Session: P
Location: Grand Salon A - D/Riverside Hilton
Date: Monday, July 29th, 2013
Time: 5:30 PM
Number: PSB006
Abstract ID:884
Candidate for Awards:None |
