Evaluation of seed morphology characteristics of Alnus taxa in Iran
Abstract
Alnus Mill. is a problematic genus of Betulaceae, and there are several intrageneric classifications for the genus. Alnus species are widely distributed in the Hyrcanian forest of Iran, and different species with some intraspecific taxonomic ranks including subspecies and varieties have been reported from this country. We evaluate seed micromorphology characteristics of ten taxa using scanning electron microscopy and light microscopy in the current study. The data were analyzed using SPSS and MVSP software. Results revealed that qualitative characteristics such as seed shape, surface sculpturing pattern, presence of indumentum, and its type vary among the studied taxa and have diagnostic value. However, seed color was nearly stable among the taxa. Besides, quantitative variables highly differed among the taxa. In the UPGMA tree, Alnus taxa were clustered into three groups, and these groups were supported by PCA and PCO plots. According to the PCA bi-plot, some taxa were characterized by the particular characteristic(s) that was useful for their identification. In some cases taxa clustering was similar to those of previous phylogenetic and morphological studies. Our findings revealed that seed morphology characteristics are a valuable taxonomical tool in identifying most Alnus taxa, except for A. glutinosa subspecies, which have similar seed morphology features in common.
Downloads
Metrics
References
Boissier E. 1867. Flora Orientalis. H. Georg in Basileae. Pp. 1179–1180.
Brochmann C. 1992. Pollen and seed morphology of Nordic Draba (Brassicaceae): phylogenetic and ecological implications. Nord. J. Bot. 12: 657–673.
Browicz K. 1972: Betulaceae. In: Flora Iranica. № 96. Ed. K. H. Rechinger. Graz. Pp. 5–8.
Chen Z. D. 1994. Phylogeny and phytogeography of the Betulaceae. Acta Phytotax. Sin. 32: 1–32.
Chen Z., Li J. 2004. Phylogenetics and biogeography of Alnus (Betulaceae) inferred from sequences of nuclear ribosomal DNA its region. Int. J. Plant Sci. 165: 132–135. DOI: 10.1086/382795
Gholamiterojeni T., Sharifnia F., Nejadsattari T., Assadi M., Hamdi S. M. M. 2019. Revision of Alnus (Betulaceae) in Iran using molecular ITS markers and morphological characteristics. Biologija 65(2): 90–104.
Govaerts R., Frodin D. G. 1998. World Checklist and Bibliography of Fagales. Kew: Royal botanical garden. Pp. 17–23.
Hosseinzadeh-Colagar A., Yousefzadeh H., Shayanmehr F., Gholamali Jalali S., Zare H., Tippery N. P. 2016. Molecular taxonomy of Hyrcanian Alnus using nuclear ribosomal ITS and chloroplast trnH-psbA DNA barcode markers. System. Biodivers. 14(1): 88–101. DOI: 10.1080/14772000.2015.1102172
Kaya A., Unal M., Ozgokce F., Dogan B., Martin E. 2011. Fruit and seed morphology of six species previously placed in Malcolmia (Brassicaceae) in Turkey and their taxonomic value. Turk. J. Botany 35: 653–662.
Koul K. K., Ranjna N., Raina S. N. 2000. Seed coat microsculpturing in Brassica and allied genera (subtribes Brassicinae, Raphaninae, Moricandiinae). Ann. Bot. 86: 385–397.
Кузенева О. И. Betulaceae // Флора СССР. Т. 5. Под ред. В. Л. Комарова. М.; Л.: АН СССР, 1936. С. 269–319.
Miki A. 1997. Late cretaceous pollen and spore floras of northern Japan: composition and interpretation. J. Fac. Sci. Hokkaido Univ. Ser. Iv. Geol. Mineral 17: 399–436.
Mobayen S. 1985. Flora of Iran: Vascular Plants. University of Tehran Press. Pp. 73–87.
Murai S. 1964. Phytotaxonomical and geobotanical studies on gen. Alnus in Japan. III. Taxonomy of whole world species and distribution of each sect. Bull. Gov. For Exp. Stn Jpn 171: 1–107.
Navarro E., Bousquet J., Moiroud A., Munive A., Piou D., Normand P. 2003. Molecular phylogeny of Alnus (Betulaceae) inferred from nuclear ribosomal DNA. Plant Soil 254: 207–217. DOI: 10.1023/A:1024978409187
Podani J. 2000. Introduction to the Exploration of Multivariate Biological Data. Leiden. 407 pp.
Shayanmehr F., Jalali S. G., Hosseinzadeh-Colagar A., Zare H., Kartoolinejad D., Yousefzade H. 2018. Leaf cuticle and wax ultrastructure of genus Alnus Mill., in Hyrcanian forests of Iran. Int. J. Environ. Stud. 75(6): 877–890. DOI: 10.1080/00207233.2018.1464278
Shayanmehr F., Jalali S.G., Hosseinzadeh-Colagar A., Zare H., Yousefzadeh H. 2014. Morphological variations of genus Alnus in Iran: assessment of five new taxa. Taxonomy and Biosystematics Journal 6, 18: 45–64.
Sukhorukov A. P., Nilova M. V., Krinitsina A. A., Zaika M. A., Erst A. S., Shepherd K. A. 2018. Molecular phylogenetic data and seed coat anatomy resolve the generic position of some critical Chenopodioideae (Chenopodiaceae – Amaranthaceae) with reduced perianth segments. PhytoKeys 109: 103–128. DOI: 10.3897/phytokeys.109.28956
Talebi S. M., Sheidai M., Atri M., Sharifnia F., Noormohammadi Z. 2012. Seed micromorphology study of the genus Linum L. (Linaceae) in Iran. Ann. Biol. Res. 3: 668–672.
Talebi S. M., Tabaripour R., Eskandari M. 2019. Analysis of nutlet morphological characteristics of some Iranian Ajuga L. taxa. Biodiversitas 20: 2833–2840. DOI: 10.13057/biodiv/d201008
Yaltrik Y. 1982. Betulaceae. In: Flora of Turkey. Vol. 7. Ed. P. H. Davis. Edinburgh. Pp. 688–694.
Zare H., Amini T. 2012. A review of the genus Alnus Gaertn. in Iran, new records and new species. Iran. J. Bot. 18(1): 10–21.
Turczaninowia is a golden publisher, as we allow self-archiving, but most importantly we are fully transparent about your rights.
Authors may present and discuss their findings ahead of publication: at biological or scientific conferences, on preprint servers, in public databases, and in blogs, wikis, tweets, and other informal communication channels.
Turczaninowia allows authors to deposit manuscripts (currently under review or those for intended submission to Turczaninowia) in non-commercial, pre-print servers such as ArXiv.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
