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(American Journal of Botany. 2001;88:2088-2100.)
© 2001 Botanical Society of America, Inc.


Systematics

Phylogenetic relationships in Disa based on non-coding trnL-trnF chloroplast sequences: evidence of numerous repeat regions1

Dirk U. Bellstedt2,5, H. Peter Linder3 and Eric H. Harley4

2Department of Biochemistry, University of Stellenbosch, Stellenbosch, Private Bag X1, Matieland 7602, South Africa; 3Bolus Herbarium, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch 7700, South Africa; and 4Department of Chemical Pathology, University of Cape Town Medical School, Mowbray 7925, South Africa

Received for publication December 8, 2000. Accepted for publication April 6, 2001.


    ABSTRACT
 TOP
 ABSTRACT
 INTRODUCTION
 MATERIALS AND METHODS
 RESULTS
 DISCUSSION
 LITERATURE CITED
 
Sequence data from the intron and spacer of the trnL-F chloroplast region elucidate the phylogenetic relationships of the tribe Diseae (Orchidoideae: Orchidaceae). Within Diseae, 41 species of Disa, two of Brownleea, three of Satyrium, and two of Corycium were included, with five species of Habenaria sensu lato (Orchideae) and one epidendroid as outgroups. The sequences revealed substitutions and considerable length variation, due mainly to the presence of repeat motifs. Phylogenetic analysis using parsimony revealed five distinct clades. The branching order of the five weakly supported the paraphyly of Diseae, with the successive divergence of Brownleea, Corycium, Habenaria, Satyrium, and Disa. Within the monophyletic Disa, three main groupings appeared, two strongly supported clades representing sect. Racemosae and sect. Coryphaea and the third grouping containing several clades currently grouped into sections based on morphological phylogenies. Some discrepancies between the molecular phylogeny and the phylogeny based on morphological characters may require reevaluation of some of the morphological characters. The presence of different numbers of repeat motifs, both among different taxa and within taxa, indicates that these characters may be phylogenetically informative at the population level.

Key Words: Brownleeinae • Coryciinae • Diseae • Disinae • molecular phylogeny • Orchidaceae • Satyriinae • trnL-trnF


    INTRODUCTION
 TOP
 ABSTRACT
 INTRODUCTION
 MATERIALS AND METHODS
 RESULTS
 DISCUSSION
 LITERATURE CITED
 
The tribe Diseae dominates the terrestrial orchid flora of southern Africa including 250 of the 466 orchid species on the subcontinent (Linder and Kurzweil, 1999 ). Diseae encompasses 54% of all orchids endemic to southern Africa, underlining its importance in the local orchid flora. Linder and Kurzweil (1994) recognize five subtribes in the tribe. Of these, Huttonaeinae and Brownleeinae each contain a single genus. Douzery et al. (1999) corroborated the monophyly of the subtribes with the exception of the Coryciinae, which may be diphyletic, and suggested that the tribe itself may be paraphyletic, with Orchideae embedded in Diseae. Almost half of all species in the Diseae belong to the subtribe Disinae. The subtribe was revised taxonomically by Linder in 1981, resulting in a complicated taxonomy of five genera, and many subgenera, sections, and series. However, attempts to establish a well-resolved phylogeny of the subtribe based on morphological data have been unsuccessful (Linder, 1986 ; Linder and Kurzweil, 1990 ). Recent morphological work suggested that Brownleea should be excluded from the subtribe, and that Monadenia and Herschelianthe should be included in Disa, thus reducing the subtribe to two genera: Schizodium with 6 species and Disa with 131 species (Johnson, Linder, and Steiner, 1998 ; Linder and Kurzweil, 1999 ).

Recently, phylogenetic studies in the Orchidaceae have benefitted greatly from molecular studies. Although the suprageneric relationships in this family based on rbcL sequences have been described (Cameron et al., 1999 ), only single representatives of the genera Disa and Satyrium were included in this study. Other studies have sought to define the phylogenetic relationships of the subtribe Orchidinae based on the more heterogenous nuclear ITS sequences, but did not investigate the Disinae in any detail, using only Disa uniflora as an outgroup (Pridgeon et al., 1997 ; Bateman, 2001 ; Bateman et al., 2001 ). Douzery et al. (1999) sequenced the ITS genes of 13 members of Disa, thereby inferring some relationships within the Disinae.

We have studied the phylogenetic relationships among 41 species of Disa, including some species in the formerly recognized genera Herschelianthe and Monadenia, based on the more variable noncoding trnL intron and trnL-trnF spacer regions in the chloroplast genome. Seven species from the closely related genera Brownleea, Satyrium, and Corycium within the tribe Diseae and five of the more distantly related genus Habenaria within the tribe Orchideae were used as outgroups. These outgroups were found not to root the tree unequivocally and although not qualifying as a close outgroup, Tridactyle bicaudata, a South African species of Epidendroideae, was used to conclusively root the tree. This study was undertaken to establish: (1) whether the trnL intron and trnL-trnF spacer region of cpDNA was of utility for phylogenetic work within Disa; and (2) whether a molecular phylogeny based on these regions would give support to the previously proposed classification based on morphological and molecular characters.


    MATERIALS AND METHODS
 TOP
 ABSTRACT
 INTRODUCTION
 MATERIALS AND METHODS
 RESULTS
 DISCUSSION
 LITERATURE CITED
 
Forty-one species of Disinae were sequenced. Sampling concentrated on Disa uniflora and its immediate relatives in series Racemosae, sect. Racemosae, subgenus Disa (Linder, 1981a–d ), but representatives of most other sections were also included (Table 1; classification following on Linder and Kurzweil, 1999 ). There are currently two hypotheses on the phylogeny within the Orchidoideae: Linder and Kurzweil (1994) proposed a monophyletic Diseae, whereas Douzery et al. (1999) presented evidence for a paraphyletic Diseae. Consequently, we used outgroup species from within the tribe Diseae (two species of Brownleea, three of Satyrium, and two of Corycium), as well as the tribe Orchideae (five species of Habenaria), and Tridactyle bicaudata (Epidendroideae) was used to root the tree.


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Table 1. Genus, subgenus, section, taxa, GenBank accession numbers, and sources of plant materials from which DNA was extracted for sequencing of the trnL-trnF region of the chloroplast genome. Fresh material was used except where indicated (D = dried; S = silicadried). The classification follows Linder and Kurzweil (1999)

 
Fresh material was available for most species, except for three for which silica gel dried material was used. Total genomic DNA was extracted using the hexacetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) method of Doyle and Doyle (1987) . Initially, the trnL intron and the trnL-trnF spacer region of the chloroplast genome were amplified using the "c" and "d" primers and the "e" and "f" primers (Taberlet et al., 1991 ) by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using standard techniques at a 2.5 mmol/L MgCl2 concentration. In the initial stages of this study, sequences were generated using the method of Sanger (eight taxa), but it was found that the "c" primer consistently gave sequencing problems. As a result, an alternative primer near the 5' end of the trnL intron was designed to recognize the conserved region II (Fangan et al., 1994 ) and is referred to as "c2" (GGATAGGTGCAGAGACTCAAT). This primer worked well for amplification as well as for sequencing purposes. As a result, all trnL intron amplifications and sequences were generated using this primer. An ABI Prism 377 sequencer was employed to sequence all other taxa. In order to eliminate possible sequencing technique errors (i.e., Sanger vs. automated), eight taxa were sequenced using both methods. In the later phases of this study, it was established that full length amplification products could be sequenced with the "c" primer using the automated sequencer; full length sequences of Disa uniflora, D. thodei, D. sagittalis, D. venosa, and D. saxicola were generated.

Sequences were aligned using the DNA and Protein Sequence Alignment (DAPSA) program developed by Harley (1998) . Sequence data were trimmed to eliminate autapomorphic ends, after which they were combined. Sequences from both regions were submitted to GenBank as indicated in Table 1. Character by taxon matrices were generated by DAPSA. Indels were coded as separate characters and quantified according to the method of Giribet and Wheeler (1999) and assigned a weight of one.

The most parsimonious trees were sought by step-wise addition calculation followed by a tree bisection and reconnection (TBR) process, holding only five trees for each of 500 random taxon entry replicates, as implemented in PAUP* (Swofford, 1993). The resulting set of most parsimonious trees were then entered into a TBR search retaining as many most parsimonious trees as physically possible (i.e., MULPARS on, with no limit set) in order to find all most parsimonious trees. This protocol is designed to avoid islands of parsimony (Maddison, 1991 ).Where multiple most parsimonious trees were obtained, the strict consensus tree was calculated. Nodal support was investigated using the bootstrap (BS; Felsenstein, 1985 ) using 200 replicates of random taxon selections. For each replicate, ten random taxon entry searches, using TBR, were done, but keeping only ten trees for each replicate. The Bremer support decay index (DI), which is the increase in tree length if a node is lost, was obtained using Auto-Decay (Eriksson and Wikström, 1995 ). Branch lengths were obtained for unambiguous optimizations only. In order to search for more resolution, successive approximations weighting (Farris, 1969 ) were conducted, with the data weighted a posteriori by the Rescaled Consistency Index (Farris, 1989 ). Nodal support was not recalculated for the weighted matrix.


    RESULTS
 TOP
 ABSTRACT
 INTRODUCTION
 MATERIALS AND METHODS
 RESULTS
 DISCUSSION
 LITERATURE CITED
 
Alignment and trnL, trnL-trnF characteristics
Sequences of the trnL intron and trnL-trnF spacer were initially aligned automatically using DAPSA, although some sequences in the repeat regions of the intron were aligned manually because of the complexity of these regions (base pairs [bp] 249–1085). DAPSA was also used to generate a cartoon of the aligned sequences which is useful for visualization of the data matrix (Figs. 1, 2), illustrating numerous substitutions as well as indels. Many taxa contained single autapomorphic indels, and the trnL intron was characterized by many repeat sequences.



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Fig. 1. Sequence cartoon of the aligned sequences of the trnL intron of species and genera included in this study. Homologous sequences are indicated as grey bars, mutations (substitutions and insertions) are indicated as full width black bars, and gaps are indicated as lines; the varying thickness of the latter is an artefact of the computer projection. Repeat regions in regions A, B, and C and are discussed in the text

 
There was considerable length variation in the trnL intron region both within and between genera (Fig. 1). The length variation between genera was largely the result of several shared larger deletions. Both Brownleea species possessed identical major deletions, resolving in the shortest sequences in the aligned data set. Similar larger deletions were found in all Satyrium species analyzed, but smaller autapomorphic deletions also occurred in some species within this genus. Within Habenaria, two major deletion patterns emerged. Habernaria pseudociliosa and H. laevigata shared one deletion pattern, while H. malacophylla, H. dives, and H. tysonii shared another. The two Corycium species also shared a distinct insertion/deletion pattern, although Corycium nigrescens had a repeat motif absent from Corycium odorum (between regions B and C). The considerable length variation found within Disa could be attributed to three regions (indicated as A, B, and C) containing different repeat motifs. In comparison with the trnL intron, the trnL-trnF spacer region showed less length variation. Habenaria and Brownleea exhibited distinct deletion patterns. Some taxa showed autapomorphic indels (e.g., D. tripetaloides and D. nervosa) although other smaller indels were shared between taxa. This was particularly evident in D. nervosa, D. patula, and D. stachyoides, which shared a distinct indel pattern.

Five species were sampled from two localities and sequenced to assess sequence variation within species (Satyrium longicauda from Mt Thesiger and Mhlahlane, D. tripetaloides from Kwa-Zulu Natal and Western Cape, D. racemosa from Bain's Kloof and Hermanus, D. caulescens from Groot Winterhoek and Rivier Sonder End, and D. maculata from Groot Winterhoek and Silvermine). No variation was found within Satyrium longicauda, D. tripetaloides, and D. racemosa, and so only one sequence of each was included in the data set. In other species, within-species variation was found. However, this variation occurred only in the form of indels; no substitutions were found between different populations of any species. For the purpose of this analysis the sequence from only one sample of each species was used.

The final length of the aligned data set of the trnL intron was 1412 bp and of the trnL-trnF spacer was 359 bp, resulting in a final matrix alignment with a total length of 1771 bp. Of these, 182 were parsimony informative (144 substitutions and 38 indels). The information contained in the data matrix is summarized in Table 2.


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Table 2. Characteristics of the chloroplast trnL intron, trnL-trnF spacer, and combined region in taxa of Orchidaceae used in this study

 
Repeat motifs within trnL sequences
Three different regions in the trnL intron were found to contain repeat motifs in different species in Disa (shown as regions A, B, and C, respectively, in Fig. 1). Region A, the most 5' repeated region, consisted of a 5-mer (ATTAT), a 4-mer (CTTA), and an 8-mer (TCTACTAT) and was present as a single copy in all 41 species analyzed. These regions were repeated in 16 of these species. These motifs could be repeated in tandem (i.e., numerous repeats of all three regions); for example, in Disa glandulosa these regions were repeated up to 13 times as a single 17 bp unit. Alternatively, repeats of two motifs occurred; as in D. fasciata, the 4-mer and the 8-mer is repeated twice. Repeats of only one of these motifs occurred in D. oreophila and D. sagittalis in which the 8-mer is repeated once and 17 times, respectively. In D. thodei and D. crassicornis, the first motif (ATTAT) is replaced by TATTCT and repeated twice and six times, in tandem with the 4-mer and the 8-mer, respectively. Almost immediately downstream of this repeated region, a second region (region B) consisting of an 8-mer was found (TAATAGTC) in all Disa species except those in sect. Phlebidia (D. maculata, D. longicornu, D. virginalis). This 8-mer was present in repeated form in 15 of the 41 taxa, but these taxa were not always those in which the first groups of repeats in region A was found. In D. oreophila, this motif was repeated a total of 48 times, but most taxa contained considerably fewer repeats. Interestingly, a mutation in D. thodei occurred that was found in all copies of the repeated motif (TAATAGTC was mutated to TAAGAGTC), whereas the closely related D. crassicornis did not show this mutation despite the region being similarly repeated. The third repeated region (region C), an 8-mer (TGTATTAG), was found downstream of the second repeat region. This motif occurred as a single repeat in 15 taxa, twice in D. polygonoides, and six times in D. lugens.

Disa glandulosa collected from Table Mountain gave two PCR products of different sizes which, when sequenced, gave identical sequences except for a difference in the number of repeats in regions A and B (shown as D. glandulosa 1 and 2, respectively, in Fig. 1). Individual plants possessed either the one or the other repeat pattern: D. glandulosa 1, which has 13 repeats in region A and 12 repeats in region B, or D. glandulosa 2, which has eight repeats in region A and eight repeats in region B. This effectively meant that the PCR product of D. glandulosa 1 is 117 bp larger than D. glandulosa 2. In view of the fact that the sequences of the two haplotypes of D. glandulosa samples differed only in the numbers of repeats, only D. glandulosa 1 was included in the phylogenetic analyses. This was justified as the numbers of repeats in both D. glandulosa 1 and D. glandulosa 2 were autapomorphic and therefore did not contribute parsimony-informative characters to the data matrix.

Phylogenetic trees reconstructed by maximum parsimony
Parsimony search located in excess of 64 000 trees of a length of 372 steps, with a consistency index of 0.628 and a retention index of 0.822. The strict consensus tree lost substantial resolution. Reweighting the characters improved resolution only slightly, indicating that the lack of resolution was due not to character conflict but to numerous zero-length branches on the tree (Fig. 3). The distribution of branch-lengths on the tree was remarkably uneven.



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Fig. 3. The strict consensus tree of the 64 000 most-parsimonious trees obtained in the parsimony analysis of the trnL-F DNA matrix of 54 orchid taxa and 182 phylogenetically informative sites. Numbers above branches are decay values followed by bootstrap percentages. Bootstrap values <50% are not indicated, and decay values of 0 are left blank. Numbers below branches are the corresponding branch-lengths. The sections into which the species have been classified within the genus Disa are indicated

 
The main phylogenetic analysis revealed five distinct clades (Brownleea, Corycium, Habenaria, Satyrium, and Disinae) when using Tridactyle bicaudata to root the tree. The branching order of these five revealed that the tribe Diseae is biphyletic, with successive emergence of the subtribes in the order mentioned above. However, all internal nodes are poorly supported (66% bootstrap for the basal node, while the other two nodes both have <55% bootstrap support).

Monophyly of the Disinae is strongly supported, with a BS value of 95% and DI of 5. Three clades emerge within the Disinae. The first clade includes two species (D. vaginata and D. glandulosa). The second clade includes 14 species (D. uniflora, D. caulescens, D. venosa, D. racemosa, D. aurata, D. tripetaloides, D. cardinalis, D. rosea, D. bivalvata, D. richardiana, D. atricapilla, D. filicornis, D. tenuifolia, and D. cylindrica).Within this clade are several strongly supported subclades. The first segregate is D. cylindrica, the only species in this clade that has not been classified into sect. Disa. Disa racemosa, D. aurata, D. tripetaloides, D. cardinalis, D. rosea, and D. bivalvata form a strongly supported clade, but with almost no resolution of the relationships among the species within this clade. Disa venosa appears basal to this group. Disa uniflora is placed as sister species to D. caulescens. The remaining species in the clade (D. filicornis, D. richardiana, D. atricapilla, and D. tenuifolia) are basal to the D. uniflora and D. venosa clades, placed with little if any resolution. The third clade in the Disinae is less well supported. Within this clade a number of groupings appear, but many of them only have weak support, and there is substantial loss of resolution in the strict consensus tree. Well-supported clades include the representatives of sect. Phlebidia (D. maculata, D. virginalis, and D. longicornu) and sect. Emarginatae (D. nervosa, D. stachyoides, and D. patula). In addition, there are several less well-supported clades. Disa thodei, D. crassicornis, and D. stairsii and also D. polygonoides, D. fragrans, and D. versicolor are grouped together, although within this grouping the subclades have better support. The grouping of D. obtusa and D. telipogonis supports their classification in sect. Falcipetalum. A poorly supported clade including D. saxicola, D. oreophila, D. lugens, and D. spathulata groups representatives of sect. Stenocarpa and sect. Herschelianthe. The placement of D. ferruginea, D. sagittalis, D. fasciata, D. ocellata, D. cornuta, and D.?densiflora remain largely unresolved.


    DISCUSSION
 TOP
 ABSTRACT
 INTRODUCTION
 MATERIALS AND METHODS
 RESULTS
 DISCUSSION
 LITERATURE CITED
 
Suitability of the primers of Taberlet et al
The amplification of the trnL intron and the trnL-F spacer region using the "c" plus "d" and "e" plus "f" primers, respectively, was successful in most taxa included in this grouping. However, in the initial phases of the project, sequencing of the trnL intron with the "c" primer using the Sanger method was problematic. To circumvent this problem, an alternative primer, designated "c2", which aligned with a sequence in the second conserved region of the intron (Fangan et al., 1994 ), was used in both amplification and sequencing. On sequencing the full trnL intron of several Disa species using automated sequencing at a later stage, it became apparent that a polyA-rich region, located immediately upstream of the "c2" primer binding site, was responsible for this problem. As the amount of phylogenetically informative sequence lost as a result of using this primer was very small, this primer therefore presents a successful alternative to the "c" primer and could also be considered for use in other studies.

The primer sets of Taberlet et al. (1991) and the c2 primer could not be used to amplify the trnL-trnF region of some taxa in sect. Monadenia. The amplification of both the intron and the spacer was unsuccessful in two species (D. bracteata and D. brevicornis), in spite of the fact that the isolated DNA could be shown to be intact. The intron region of D. graminifolia could also not be amplified, although the sequence of the spacer could be obtained. Possibly mutations have occurred in the chloroplast tRNA genes of these species, whereby the primers could no longer recognize their relevant regions. However, the intron and spacer region of an unidentified species of this section, (referred to as D.?densiflora), and D. cylindrica could be sequenced and were used as representatives of this section.

Sequence variation within species
Three species, although collected from different localities, showed identical sequences (D. racemosa, D. tripetaloides, Satyrium longicauda). This was not surprising in D. racemosa and Satyrium longicauda, since the localities were close together geographically (~100 km). However, D. tripetaloides showed identical sequences even in specimens collected at the extreme westerly and easterly extremes of its range, a distance of ~1000 km. In addition, the western populations of D. tripetaloides flower in summer, whereas the eastern populations flower in winter.

Some species (D. caulescens, D. maculata) did show variation in sequence data within species but revealed indel differences only and no single-base substitutions. Disa caulescens collected from two localities (Groot Winterhoek and Rivier Sonder End) in two distinct drainage systems (Berg River, draining north into the Atlantic Ocean, and Breede River, draining into the Indian Ocean) differed with regard to a single autapomorphic eight-base insertion (bp 1217–1224) in the trnL intron (see Fig. 1). Although viewed to be the same species according to morphological characters, introgression from the sympatric D. tripetaloides had been suspected at Rivier Sonder End (Linder, 1990 ). Although no evidence for this introgression could be found from the sequences of the D. tripetaloides intron and spacer regions, this could be difficult to observe from these sequences due to the maternal inheritance of the chloroplast genome.

Disa maculata from Groot Winterhoek and D. maculata from Silvermine showed identical trnL introns but differed by a large autapomorphic deletion (bp 12–238, i.e., 226 bp) in the trnL-trnF spacer of D. maculata from Groot Winterhoek and a 7-bp insertion (bp 274–280) in the trnL-trnF spacer of D. maculata from Silvermine (Fig. 2). The distance separating these two localities is ~140 km. The closely related D. virginalis, which occurs sympatrically with and is vegetatively indistinguishable from D. maculata in Groot Winterhoek (Linder et al., 1998 ), also has an identical trnL intron but possesses a single 2-bp insertion (bp 311–312) in trnL-trnF spacer and does not possess the 226 bp deletion or the 7-bp insertion that distinguishes the D. maculata forms from Muizenberg and Silvermine.



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Fig. 2. Sequence cartoon of the aligned sequences of the trnL-F spacer of species and genera included in this study. Homologous sequences are indicated as grey bars, mutations (substitutions and insertions) are indicated as black bars, and gaps are indicated as lines.

 
Molecular evolution of repeats in the trnL intron and their phylogenetic utility
According to the theory for the evolution of repeats presented by Levinson and Gutman (1987) , a repeat arises by slipped-strand mispairing (SSM) mechanisms and, once this repeat has been created, the likelihood that more copies of the repeats evolve becomes even greater. Evidence that such mechanisms play a role in the evolution of the chloroplast genome, specifically in the rpoC2 gene of grasses, has also been presented (Cummings, King, and Kellogg, 1994 ). In Disa, the evidence of repeats in regions A, B, and C found here (i.e., that some species possess single repeats, some species possess a few repeats, and others possess large numbers of repeats) suggests that these repeats evolved by single-strand mispairing mechanisms. The numerous repeats found in D. glandulosa in region A, in D. oreophila in region B, and in D. lugens in region C support this inference. The evidence within D. glandulosa, in which two haplotypes of the chloroplast genome possessing different numbers of repeats in region A and B were found (referred to as D. glandulosa 1 and D. glandulosa 2), is an illustration of these evolutionary mechanisms at the within-species level. Due to the large differences in size between the D. glandulosa 1 and D. glandulosa 2 PCR products, a population analysis would be possible using PCR and agarose gel electrophoresis alone without further sequencing. Such studies could shed more light on the role of SSM mechanisms in the generation of repeat regions.

Unless the number of repeats in two species is identical, this information is not phylogenetically informative. As this was rarely the case within Disa, the repeat regions contributed little phylogenetic information. However, this information may be more informative at the population level in species such as D. glandulosa. In closely related species such as D. thodei and D. crassicornis, which differed only by one base change in repeat region B and numbers of repeats in region A, this information may also be informative in delineating species boundaries and warrants further examination by us. The mode of evolution by which the single base change in D. thodei is found in all the repeats can only be explained by either an identical repeat event occurring in D. thodei after the base substitution event or by a concerted phenomenon, in which the base substitution, occurring after the repeat has formed, is propagated throughout the repeated copies, perhaps by an unequal crossing-over mechanism.

Range of utility of the trnL-trnF region
The utility of the trnL-trnF region in resolving the phylogenetic relationships in the Disinae appears to be good. Although resolution of some sections was poor, these sections were also poorly sampled and higher sampling may give more resolution.

Monophyly of the major clades of Diseae
The monophyly of the Disinae using the trnL-trnF region is well supported and corroborates the findings of Douzery et al. (1999) . In addition, the monophyly of Satyrium, Habenaria, Corycium, and Brownleea is supported in each case. Habenaria is subdivided into two strongly supported subclades, which is possibly an indication of polyphyly within the genus, as other authors have found (Pridgeon et al., 1997 ; Bateman, 2001 ; Bateman et al., 2001 ). However, the monophyly of these genera cannot be expanded to their respective subtribes, since the sampling was restricted to include only the most species-rich genus in each subtribe. Although the relationships between these groupings are not strongly supported, the relatively high bootstrap value at the basal node of the tree does support inclusion of Habenaria within the Diseae. This is not congruent with maintaining the two tribes Orchideae and Diseae, as implied by the current taxonomies (Dressler, 1993 ; Linder and Kurzweil, 1999 ), and also contradicts phylogeny based on morphological characters (Linder and Kurzweil, 1994 ), although the latter did not test the monophyly of Diseae. However, these results are consistent with those of Douzery et al. (1999) using the ITS region and Cameron et al. (1999) based on rbcL sequence data. Thus, all three molecular sequences investigated to date suggest that Diseae and Orchideae are not reciprocally monophyletic and consequently that recognizing both would not be consistent with the principles of monophyly. A possible taxonomic and nomenclatural solution would be to include the Diseae under Orchideae, but to retain those subtribes that show evidence of monophyly.

Phylogeny within Disinae
Although there are numerous discrepancies between the cladogram obtained here and the taxonomy established by Linder (1981a–d) , there are also many similarities.

The first clade contains the taxonomically anomalous species D. vaginata and D. glandulosa. These were originally included in sect. Coryphaea, but subsequent morphological phylogenetic analyses (Linder and Kurzweil, 1999 ) indicated that they occupied a rather isolated position and might be misplaced in sect. Coryphaea. These morphological indications are strongly corroborated here. Furthermore, these two species are self-pollinating (Johnson, Steiner, and Kurzweil, 1994 ) as opposed to other members of the section, which are cross-pollinating. The grouping of D. sagitallis, the other member of the section included in the study, in the third clade, lends further support to this apparent split of sect. Coryphaea.

The second division separates sect. Disa from the rest of the genus. The patterns within sect. Disa are not congruent with the morphological cladogram of Linder and Kurzweil (1999) . Remarkably, D. bivalvata is not grouped with D. atricapilla. These two species are morphologically very similar and were in the past separated as the genus Orthopenthea (Rolfe, 1912–1913), and although Linder (1981a–d) included the segregate genus in Disa, the morphological analysis found strong support for the clade. It is possible that the similarity is due to both species having a similar pollination system (both are pollinated by sexual mimicry: Steiner, Whitehead, and Johnson, 1994 ), but they hybridize in nature, suggesting substantial genetic similarity. Even more convincing is that the two species share several vegetative peculiarities, such as a basal brush of linear leaves and a stout, almost naked culm. These cannot be attributed to a similar pollination system. Another anomaly is the separation of D. venosa and D. racemosa. As in the case of D. atricapilla and D. bivalvata, these two species are morphologically so similar that D. venosa was regarded as a subspecies of D. racemosa by Schlechter (1901) , and the morphological phylogeny of Linder and Kurzweil (1999) suggests that they are sister species, relatively isolated from the rest of the section. Conversely, the molecular phylogeny failed to detect the morphological clade of D. tripetaloides, D. aurata, D. cardinalis, D. uniflora, and D. caulescens. This clade is largely based on the presence of stolons, rather than floral characters. A notable exclusion from this division is D. fasciata. However, D. fasciata is morphologically rather different from the rest of sect. Disa; its spreading tepals mimic the flowers of Adenandra (Rutaceae).

The remaining species of Disa group in a third large division. The first clade, containing all three species from sect. Phlebidia (D. maculata, D. virginalis, D. longicornu), is strongly supported. These three species inhabit rock walls and cracks and have very similar vegetative morphology. However, the placement of sect. Phlebidia here, rather than with sect. Disa, indicates that the monophyly of subgenus Disa, as delimited by Linder (1981a–d) , is contradicted. Both sections have been extensively sampled (all known species of sect. Phlebidia have been included in this study), so these results cannot be the consequence of sampling bias.

Sect. Emarginatae is retrieved with 100% bootstrap value, supporting the morphological phylogenetic analysis where the section is diagnosed by a shallow dorsal groove on the galea. This section includes six species, so half of the species have been sampled here. One species in the section, D. buchenaviana, is restricted to Madagascar and confirming the position of the species within this well-supported section could suggest recent dispersal to Madagascar.

Herschelia was separated from Disa by Lindley (1830–1840) . The group has since alternately been recognized at generic level (Rolfe, 1912–1913 ; Linder, 1981c ) and as a section of Disa (Schlechter, 1901 ; Linder and Kurzweil, 1999 ). Linder and Kurzweil (1999) regard it as closely related to sect. Stenocarpa, with which it shares a similar leaf anatomy (Kurzweil et al., 1995 ). This view is corroborated here, where two representatives of sect. Stenocarpa (D. saxicola, D. oreophila) group with the two representatives of sect. Herschelianthe (D. lugens, D. spathulata). However, the bootstrap support for all of these relationships is weak. In addition, D. ferruginea, which on morphological grounds is intermediate between sect. Stenocarpa and sect. Herschelianthe, is not included in the group, and instead occupies a solitary position at a lower node. The sampling of these two sections has been rather poor: sect. Herschelianthe includes 16 species (with two species sampled), and sect. Stenocarpa contains 15 species (with three species sampled). Better sampling might result in stronger support for the relationships between the two sections. The exclusion of D. ferruginea could either reflect the morphological diversity in the two sections (indicating that more morphologically disparate species have in the past been incorrectly included in these two sections) or be an artifact of the relatively poor sampling.

Evidence for monophyly of sect. Disella is present but weak; Disa obtusa and D. telipogonis are grouped together strongly, but D. ocellata and D. uncinata remain poorly resolved. Morphological evidence for the section is also modest, leaving open the possibility that the section is not monophyletic.

The further weakly supported clade contains three sections: sect. Stoloniferae (represented by D. stairsii), sect. Micranthae (D. polygonoides, D. fragrans), and sect. Hircicornes (D. thodei, D. crassicornis, D. versicolor). The nodes within these two sections are generally well supported; they indicate that sect. Hircicornes might be polyphyletic and sect. Micranthae paraphyletic. Section Micranthae is morphologically very distinct, delimited by a suite of characters that includes erect anthers, pendulous spurs, and bilobed petals. The morphological analyses of Linder and Kurzweil (1990) suggested that the section (which was recognized as a subgenus by Linder, 1981b ) might be a sister-group to the rest of the genus, though later analyses (Johnson, Linder, and Steiner, 1998 ) suggested a position adjacent to sect. Hircicornes. However, on morphological grounds it would appear unlikely that the section is paraphyletic. The polyphyly of sect. Hircicornes is possibly less surprising, since the section occupies a central position among the species possessing separate sterile shoots, and soft, unthickened, broad green leaves. It is possible that these results are anomalous due to poor sampling: sect. Hircicornes includes 15 species, of which only three have been sampled, and only two species of the mainly tropical 23 species in sect. Micranthae have been analyzed, both belonging to the basal series of the section.

Monadenia, which was first separated from Disa by Lindley, has experienced a very similar taxonomic history to Herschelia, being alternately recognized at generic or sectional level. Although Disa (Monadenia) cylindrica groups in the first division of the genus and Disa ?densiflora groups in the second, this does corroborate Schlechter (1901) , who regarded Monadenia as a section of Disa. The inclusion of D. cylindrica as the basal element of the first division is, however, inconsistent with morphological evidence. Linder (1981a–d) originally included it in sect. Coryphaea, but Linder and Kurzweil (1999) transferred the species to sect. Monadenia, based on its single viscidium and pendulous spur. However, it lacks many of the features typical of sect. Monadenia. The position of Disa ?densiflora (as a representative of 16 species of this section) in this analysis as sister to sect. Emarginatae is inconsistent with its placement as sister to sect. Hircicornes by Linder and Kurzweil (1999) , but neither the morphological evidence nor the molecular is wholly convincing. Denser sampling of this section is required to give greater definition to the placement of this section within the genus.

Perspectives
This analysis has raised many tantalizing problems in the sectional classification of the species-rich orchid genus Disa. Most morphologically delimited sections are either not monophyletic or contain some apparently misplaced elements. However, the results raise more questions than provide answers, and to resolve these it will be necessary to expand the species sampling. It will be important to include many more species of each section, and this applies particularly to those sections represented by single species. It will be particularly interesting to obtain examples of Schizodium, the sister genus of Disa within the Disinae, as well as sampling the Indian Ocean and tropical species more extensively. The inclusion of additional sequences from another gene, such as the more variable nuclear ITS gene, should contribute to more definitive resolution of the currently weakly supported clades.

The identification of repeat sequences in the trnL intron in Disa, and the occurrence of variations in the number of these repeats within species, may be of value in population studies in Disa or in the related Habenaria in which they have been reported to occur. They may also be of use in the delimitation of species boundaries within Disa. In addition, these regions may give important insights into the evolution of the trnL intron through SSM mechanisms in the subfamily Orchidoideae.


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    FOOTNOTES
 
1 The authors thank Mrs. Coral de Villiers for expert technical assistance; Mrs. Elize Cloete, curatrix of the University of Transkei Herbarium, Umtata, South Africa, for assistance in the collection of plant samples and organization of collection trips; Mr. Tony Dold, Schönland Herbarium, Grahamstown, and Mr. Dez Weeks for their assistance in the collection of plant samples in the Grahamstown vicinity; and Dr. Louis Vogelpoel, Cape Town, for the supply of plant material from his orchid collection. We would also like to thank Prof. R. Bateman for his critical comments on an earlier draft of this manuscript. This research was funded by Dirk U. Bellstedt from the sale of immunodiagnostic kits to the South African Potato Industry. Back

5 Author for reprint requests (dub{at}sun.ac.za ). Back


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