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(American Journal of Botany. 2002;89:160-168.)
© 2002 Botanical Society of America, Inc.


Systematics

Phylogeny of Stephanomeria and related genera (compositae–lactuceae) based on analysis of 18S–26S nuclear rDNA ITS and ETS sequences1

Joongku Lee2, Bruce G. Baldwin2,4 and L. D. Gottlieb3

2Jepson Herbarium and Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720-2465 USA; and 3Section of Evolution and Ecology, University of California, Davis, California 95616 USA

Received for publication March 8, 2001. Accepted for publication July 5, 2001.


    ABSTRACT
 TOP
 ABSTRACT
 INTRODUCTION
 MATERIALS AND METHODS
 RESULTS
 DISCUSSION
 LITERATURE CITED
 
A phylogenetic analysis of DNA sequences from the internal transcribed spacer (ITS), the external transcribed spacer (ETS), and the 5.8S regions of 18S–26S nuclear rDNA from all diploid species of Stephanomeria and related genera shows that Stephanomeria does not include either Munzothamnus blairii (previously S. blairii) or Pleiacanthus spinosus (previously S. spinosa). Without these two taxa, Stephanomeria is a well-supported (100% bootstrap), monophyletic group of ten perennial and six annual species. Munzothamnus blairii and Pleiacanthus spinosus, both now considered members of monotypic genera, had been placed in Stephanomeria primarily because they have the same chromosome number as Stephanomeria and similar pollen surface features, but many disparities were ignored in previous classifications. Within Stephanomeria, an unsuspected sister relationship was detected between the montane S. lactucina and coastal S. cichoriacea. A second clade contained all the annual taxa and five of the perennial species. Among the annuals, strong bootstrap support was obtained for the previously recognized relationships between S. diegensis and S. exigua (98%) and between S. malheurensis and its progenitor, S. exigua subsp. coronaria (96%). Among the five perennial species that constitute a clade with the annuals, the recently described S. fluminea was shown to be sister to S. runcinata, and both of them were closely allied to S. tenuifolia and S. thurberi. The clade including the annuals (and five of the perennial species) was subtended by perennial lineages and pairwise divergence values among the annual taxa were much lower than among the perennial taxa as a group (though not too different than among the perennials in the same clade). The annuals probably originated recently within the genus.

Key Words: Compositae • external transcribed spacer • internal transcribed spacer • Lactuceae • molecular phylogeny • Munzothamnus; • PleiacanthusStephanomeria


    INTRODUCTION
 TOP
 ABSTRACT
 INTRODUCTION
 MATERIALS AND METHODS
 RESULTS
 DISCUSSION
 LITERATURE CITED
 
Stephanomeria Nutt., with ten perennial and six annual species, is one of the three largest genera of Lactuceae that are mostly restricted to western North America (the others are Malacothrix DC., with 22 species, and Microseris D. Don, with 14 species). Stephanomerias are common and conspicuous plants of the summer and late-summer floras in many regions. Some species are very widely distributed (S. tenuifolia is found over a range encompassing >200 x 106 ha); others are narrow endemics (S. guadalupensis on Guadalupe Island, Mexico; S. fluminea in three counties of northwestern Wyoming; and S. malheurensis in a single site in eastern Oregon). Some are found across a variety of distinctive habitats (S. exigua subsp. coronaria ranges from the ocean beach in Santa Barbara County, California, to 2700 m in the southern Sierra Nevada to the sagebrush deserts of eastern Oregon and Idaho); others are narrowly adapted (S. runcinata to clay flats and siltstones; S. fluminea to raised cobble benches in the shifting gravel beds of creeks and rivers). Some are highly variable in morphology (S. tenuifolia); others seem relatively uniform throughout their ranges (S. lactucina and S. paniculata). Most are self-incompatible and obligate outcrossers; four annual taxa (S. paniculata, S. elata, S. malheurensis, and S. exigua subsp. macrocarpa) are predominantly self-pollinating. All are diploid except the perennial S. parryi and the annual S. elata, which are tetraploid. This remarkable array of contrasting attributes among only 16 species makes Stephanomeria excellent for studies of genetic differentiation and speciation.

Historically, the genus has long been known for the complex morphological intergradation that seems to connect the species. For example, Ferris (1960, p. 574), referring to the annuals, noted that "Different strains are sometimes locally recognizable but intergrading forms are constantly to be found even in the same region." Cronquist (1994, p. 448), referring to the very widespread perennial species S. tenuifolia and S. pauciflora, noted that the former species "consists of two striking but poorly defined varieties that show a degree of geographic segregation. They seem very different in their typical expression, but variation is continuous from one to the other," and when considering the two species together said, "Stephanomeria pauciflora is remarkably like S. tenuifolia ... in aspect. The only consistently dependable difference between the two lies in the pappus, ...."

The taxonomic distinctions of the annual species were poorly understood for years. The individual species did not become evident until their morphology and geographical distributions were correlated with their chromosome numbers and reproductive compatibilities (Gottlieb, 1971, 1972 ). Stephanomeria exigua and S. virgata were shown to differ for a large number of traits, including their karyotypes, that were recombined in several other annual species, both at the diploid and tetraploid levels. The tetraploid S. elata was shown by cytogenetic analysis to have an allotetraploid origin from natural hybrids between the two diploids and to form a polyploid complex with them (Gottlieb, 1969 ). The diploid S. diegensis also proved to be derived from hybrids between S. exigua and S. virgata (Gallez and Gottlieb, 1982 ). Overall, the morphological intermediacy of S. elata and S. diegensis and the frequent presence of hybrid individuals wherever S. exigua and S. virgata grow together were the causes of the taxonomic complexities of the entire group of annuals.

Evolutionary studies of the genus also provided evidence for the direct origin of one diploid plant species from an extant one, the selfer S. malheurensis having arisen from the population of the outcrosser S. exigua subsp. coronaria at a single site in eastern Oregon where they grow side by side (Gottlieb, 1973, 1978 ).

Relationships among the annual stephanomerias and circumscriptions for the species were determined from the results of an intensive series of experimental hybridizations carried out among scores of populations (Gottlieb, 1971 ). Similar studies have not been conducted on the perennial species. Before the present study, the relationships among them were not understood, nor was it even clear whether all of the perennial species commonly assigned to the genus properly belong to it. For example, Stephanomeria blairii, recognized in The Jepson manual: higher plants of California (Hickman, 1993 ), had been placed in Malacothrix and had also been considered as a monotypic genus Munzothamnus P. H. Raven. Stephanomeria spinosa, also recognized in The Jepson manual, was transferred into the genus from Lygodesmia D. Don on the basis of having a chromosome number and pollen sculpturing similar to those of Stephanomeria.

No taxonomic assessment of all the species of Stephanomeria at one time has ever been carried out. Because many of its species have been important in the study of plant evolutionary biology, and because a modern treatment is required for the Flora of North America North of Mexico project (L. D. Gottlieb, unpublished), it seemed appropriate to examine them now from the perspective of molecular systematics. We present here an analysis of DNA sequences from the internal transcribed spacer (ITS), the external transcribed spacer (ETS), and the 5.8S regions of 18S–26S nuclear rDNA from all the species of Stephanomeria as well as from four related genera (see Appendix 1).


    MATERIALS AND METHODS
 TOP
 ABSTRACT
 INTRODUCTION
 MATERIALS AND METHODS
 RESULTS
 DISCUSSION
 LITERATURE CITED
 
Taxa
Initially, we examined sequences from representative species of all principally western North American genera of Lactuceae. The sampling included 10 of the 11 genera (except the Chilean endemic Thamnoseris F. Phil.) assigned to Stephanomeriinae sensu Stebbins (1953) , all 7 genera assigned to Microseridinae sensu Stebbins (1953) , both names formalized as subtribes by Solbrig (1963) , and representatives of other subtribes of Lactuceae. The taxa in Microseridinae have base chromosome numbers of x = 5, 6, and 9; those in Stephanomeriinae have x = 6, 7, 8, and 9. The taxa examined in this paper include all those with a base chromosome number of x = 8 and are assigned to Stephanomeria, Rafinesquia Nutt., Munzothamnus, and Pleiacanthus Rydb. as well as a taxon with n = 7 assigned to Prenanthella Rydb. The broader analysis showed that all these taxa belong to a single clade with 100% bootstrap support; this clade is the subject of the present paper. The analysis of all the Stephanomeriinae and other western North American Lactuceae will be presented in a separate publication. Four taxa were selected as outgroups, two from Microseridinae (Nothocalais troximoides and Uropappus lindleyi) and two from Stephanomeriinae sensu Stebbins (Atrichoseris platyphylla and Malacothrix saxatilis var. tenuifolia).

The sequences from all diploid species generally recognized in Stephanomeria were examined; the tetraploid perennial S. parryi and the tetraploid annual S. elata were not included. Sources of all plant materials and GenBank accession numbers for DNA sequences have been archived at the American Journal of Botany Supplementary Data web site (http://ajbsupp.botany.org/). Voucher specimens are deposited at DAV, JEPS, and UC.

DNA isolation
Total DNAs were extracted from 1–2 g fresh leaves pulverized in liquid nitrogen by a cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) protocol modified from Richard, Reichardt, and Rogers (1994) or from dried herbarium specimens with the DNeasy Plant Mini Kit (Qiagen, Valencia, California, USA).

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of the ITS region
The ITS region includes the ITS-1, 5.8S, and ITS-2 nuclear rDNA regions (Fig. 1). It was amplified as described by Baldwin and Wessa (2000) with primers ITS-I (5'-GTCCACTGAACCTTATCATTTAG-3'; Urbatsch, Baldwin, and Donoghue, 2000 ) and ITS4 (5'-TCCTCCGCTTATTGATATGC-3'; White et al., 1990 ). The PCR products were visualized by agarose gel electrophoresis and cleaned with Ultra free-MC tubes (Millipore, Burlington, Massachusetts, USA).



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Fig. 1. Position of the internal transcribed spacers (ITS) and external transcribed spacer (ETS) within 18S–26S nuclear rDNA. Arrows indicate approximate position of primers used for PCR amplifications or DNA sequencing. See MATERIALS AND METHODS for primer sequences

 
The PCR amplification of the ETS region
The ETS region is located between the 18S and 26S rDNA genes, adjacent to the 5' end of the 18S (Fig. 1). To design a suitable primer to amplify it, we initially amplified the entire intergenic spacer (IGS) of eight species in five of the genera of Stephanomeriinae and sequenced the 3' ETS region. For amplifying the IGS, we used primers 18S-IGS (5'-GAGACAAGCATATGACTACTGGCAGGATCAACCAG-3'; Baldwin and Markos, 1998 ) and 26S-IGS (5'-GGATTGTTCACCCACCAATAGGGAACGTGAGCTG-3'; Baldwin and Markos, 1998 ) in the Expand High Fidelity PCR System enzyme mix (Roche, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA) and sequenced the 3' ETS region of the resulting fragment with primer 18S-E (5'-GCAGGATCAACCAGGTAGCA-3'; Baldwin and Markos, 1998 ) as described by Baldwin and Markos (1998) . A region of complete nucleotide identity was found in the eight species and a primer was designed within it: L-ETS (5'-GCATCGTTCGGTGCATTCT-3'). The L-ETS primer was then used with primer 18S-ETS (5'-ACTTACACATGCATGGCTTAATCT-3'; Baldwin and Markos, 1998 ) to amplify the 3' ETS region.

Sequencing protocols
For sequencing the ITS region, we used primers ITS4 (also used for amplification of the ITS region; see above) and ITS5 (5'-GGAAGGAGAAGTCGTAACAAGG-3'; White et al., 1990 ). We used primers L-ETS and 18S-ETS for sequencing of 3' ETS amplification products generated using the same primers (see above). Cycle-sequencing reactions were conducted using the Thermo Sequenase Dye Terminator Cycle Sequencing Kit (US79765, Amersham Pharmacia Biotech, Cleveland, Ohio, USA) with the addition of 4% DMSO (dimethyl sulfoxide) and with half-volume reactions. Reaction products were purified using Centri-seps columns (CS-901, Princeton Separations, Adelphia, New Jersey, USA). The DNA sequences were resolved on 4.8% polyacrylamide gels (Page-Plus acrylamide E562, Amresco, Solon, Ohio, USA) in an ABI 377 automated sequencer (Perkin-Elmer/Applied Biosystems). The sequences were analyzed with ABI Sequence Analysis and ABI Sequence Navigator software (Perkin-Elmer/Applied Biosystems). Nucleotide sequences of both DNA strands were obtained and compared to ensure accuracy. For Stephanomeria guadalupensis and S. thurberi, the fragments were cloned with the TOPO TA cloning kit (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, California, USA) because high-quality sequences could not be obtained directly from the pooled PCR products. The clones were reamplified (prior to sequencing) directly from plated, transformed colonies with M13 primers. Cells were added to the reaction mix and lysed at 94°C for 12 min in the thermocycler prior to 30 cycles of PCR (94°C for 1 min, 58°C for 1 min, and 72°C for 2 min), followed by a final extension period (72°C for 7 min). Among all sequences examined in the present study, 70 sites (0.13%) showed two bases; i.e., such sites either were truly polymorphic within the individual or were artifacts.

Phylogenetic analyses
Sequences were aligned with Clustal X (Thompson et al., 1997 ) and adjusted manually. The boundaries between the spacers and adjacent rRNA genes (18S, 5.8S, and 26S) were determined by comparisons with earlier published angiosperm sequences (Baldwin, 1992 ; Baldwin and Markos, 1998 ). Gaps were treated as missing data in phylogenetic analyses. The aligned sequence matrix has been archived at the American Journal of Botany Supplementary Data web site (http://ajbsupp.botany.org/) and as hardcopy in JEPS archives.

Prior to phylogenetic analyses, the partition homogeneity test (Farris et al., 1995 ), as implemented in PAUP* 4.0 (Swofford, 1998 ), was conducted to test for incongruence of phylogenetic signal between the ETS and ITS regions. The test included 100 homogeneity replicates, each involving 20 heuristic searches with random stepwise-addition. Parsimony analyses were conducted using PAUP* 4.0 (Swofford, 1998 ). Analyses were conducted of the entire aligned sequence matrix, with all characters and character-state transformations given equal weight. Maximum parsimony analysis was performed using 500 heuristic searches with random stepwise-addition. Reliability of clades was evaluated by bootstrap analyses, with 20 heuristic searches and random stepwise-addition for each of the 500 bootstrap replicates.

Taxon divergence
Divergence between every pair of taxa was calculated as the actual number of site differences between them excluding insertions/deletions (indels). When multiple sequences of a taxon were available, as was the case for 13 of the 24 taxa (19 in Stephanomeria plus 5 in related genera), all possible pairwise comparisons were made and a single divergence value was calculated by averaging.


    RESULTS
 TOP
 ABSTRACT
 INTRODUCTION
 MATERIALS AND METHODS
 RESULTS
 DISCUSSION
 LITERATURE CITED
 
Length variation
The ITS-1 region varied in length from 252 to 254 bp (base pairs). The ITS-2 region varied from 217 to 222 bp. Both ranges are well within those reported for other angiosperms (Baldwin et al., 1995 ). The 5.8S rDNA was invariant in length at 164 bp, similar to the value reported previously (Hershkovitz and Lewis, 1996 ). The 3' ETS region varied from 508 bp (in Stephanomeria tenuifolia) to 515 bp (in Munzothamnus blairii).

A total of 33 indels were inferred from the aligned ITS and ETS regions. The ITS region had 19 indels and the ETS had 14. The longest indels were two 3-bp deletions (in Stephanomeria tenuifolia, STEN2—see Appendix 1 for taxon abbreviations), at sites 441–443 and 446–448. The only other indel longer than a single base was a 3 bp deletion in ITS-2 of Prenanthella exigua, sites 1124–1126.

Sequence diversity
For the aligned ITS and ETS sequences, 386 of 1162 sites (33.2%) were variable. The ETS sequence showed variation at 207 of 518 sites (40.0%) and, of these, 129 (24.9%) were potentially informative. For the ITS-1 and ITS-2 sequences, 173 of 480 sites (36.0%) were variable; of these, 115 (24.0%) were potentially informative. In the 5.8S rDNA, only six of 164 sites (3.7%) were variable, and four of them were potentially informative.

Phylogenetic results
The partition homogeneity test showed that the ITS and ETS data sets are not significantly heterogeneous (P = 0.07); therefore, they were combined for all subsequent analyses. Maximum parsimony analysis of the ETS + ITS matrix of 42 sequences and four outgroup taxa (two from Microseridinae and two from Stephanomeriinae sensu Stebbins [1953] ), resulted in 16 minimum length trees, each with a length of 658 steps, a consistency index (CI) of 0.74 (excluding uninformative characters), and a retention index (RI) of 0.83. The strict consensus of the 16 trees is shown in Fig. 2.



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Fig. 2. Strict consensus of the 16 minimum-length trees for Stephanomeria and relatives based on 18S–26S nuclear rDNA sequences from the ITS and 3' ETS regions. See Appendix 1 for abbreviations of names of taxa

 
The result of the bootstrap analysis is shown in Fig. 3. Only clades well supported by bootstrap values >85% are displayed. The tree shows that Munzothamnus, Pleiacanthus, Rafinesquia, and Stephanomeria (all with x = 8) and Prenanthella (n = 7) constitute a monophyletic clade with 100% bootstrap support. Munzothamnus blairii ({equiv} Stephanomeria blairii) and Pleiacanthus spinosus ({equiv} S. spinosa) have been included within Stephanomeria in all recent treatments of the genus. The inclusion of Prenanthella in the clade is unexpected. Rafinesquia, with two species, has been taxonomically stable and sequence evidence is consistent with this point of view. An ETS deletion of 1 bp (at site 456 in the ETS/ITS data matrix) reinforces evidence from nucleotide substitutions for monophyly of Rafinesquia.



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Fig. 3. The 85% majority-rule bootstrap consensus tree for Stephanomeria and relatives based on 18S–26S nuclear rDNA sequences from the ITS and 3' ETS regions. The numbers above branches are bootstrap percentages. See Appendix 1 for abbreviations of names of taxa

 
The tree shows that Stephanomeria, without Munzothamnus and Pleiacanthus, is a well-supported (100% bootstrap), monophyletic group that includes nine perennial taxa (not counting the tetraploid S. parryi) and five annual taxa (not counting the tetraploid S. elata). Stephanomeria appears to consist of two clades: one, with moderate bootstrap support (91%), that combines the two perennials S. lactucina and S. cichoriacea, and the second, with 99% bootstrap support, that contains the remaining seven perennials and all the annuals. The second clade is a trichotomy with two taxa from Baja California: S. monocephala, from high montane habitats of the Sierra de San Pedro Mártir, and S. guadalupensis, endemic to Isla Guadalupe (an oceanic island 260 km west of the Baja California peninsula), and a well-supported clade (100% bootstrap) that includes five perennial species and all the annual species.

The following three groups within the latter clade are convincing: (1) four perennials, mostly distributed outside the California Floristic Province—the recently described species S. fluminea, S. runcinata, the very widespread species S. tenuifolia, and the southwestern species S. thurberi (also supported by a 1-bp ITS-2 deletion at site 953 in the ETS/ITS data matrix); (2) two subspecies of S. exigua (subsp. deanei and subsp. exigua) and S. diegensis, the latter previously thought to have originated from hybridization between S. exigua and S. virgata (Gallez and Gottlieb, 1982 ); and (3) S. malheurensis and its recent progenitor S. exigua subsp. coronaria (Gottlieb, 1973, 1978 ). Relationships among the other annual taxa and the perennial S. pauciflora remain unresolved.

Pairwise divergence in Stephanomeria
The calculated pairwise divergence values between all pairs of taxa provide estimates of the relative differences among the annual taxa, among the perennial taxa, and between these two groups (Table 1). The annual taxa showed an average pairwise divergence of 11.0 sites, varying from 2.5 to 19.8. All the perennials had an average pairwise divergence of 30.7, varying from 1.0 to 49.3. Because the phylogenetic analysis showed that S. lactucina and S. cichoriacea belong to a different clade than the seven other perennial species, values for them were also calculated separately; they differed from their congeners at 44.7 sites, varying from 33.7 to 51.7. Five of the perennial species are in the same clade as the annuals. The average divergence among these perennials was 14.2, varying from 1.0 to 20.5, quite comparable to that among the annuals. Between the annuals and all perennials, the average difference was 25.2 sites.


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Table 1. Matrix of pairwise divergence values for species of Stephanomeria based on 18S-26S nuclear rDNA sequences of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region (i.e., ITS-1, 5.8S, ITS-2) and the 3' external transcribed spacer (ETS). For species with multiple sequences, the values are the average number of site differences excluding insertions/deletions. See Appendix 1 for abbreviations of names of taxa

 

    DISCUSSION
 TOP
 ABSTRACT
 INTRODUCTION
 MATERIALS AND METHODS
 RESULTS
 DISCUSSION
 LITERATURE CITED
 
The primary results of this study are that Stephanomeria does not include either Munzothamnus blairii ({equiv} S. blairii) or Pleiacanthus spinosus ({equiv} S. spinosa) and that without these two taxa, Stephanomeria is a well supported (100% bootstrap; Fig. 3), monophyletic group of ten perennial and six annual species (counting S. elata and S. parryi, the two tetraploids not sampled here).

Munzothamnus blairii appears to belong in a monotypic genus. The taxon, endemic to San Clemente Island, Los Angeles County, California, has had various taxonomic homes. It was initially described as Stephanomeria blairii by Munz and Johnston (1924) and later transferred by them to Malacothrix (Munz, 1935 ). Raven (1963) considered it "clearly a relictual and highly isolated genus" primarily because of its leaf shape and vegetative architecture and erected Munzothamnus for it. Stebbins, Jenkins, and Walters (1953) emphasized the similar number and appearance of the chromosomes of M. blairii to those of Stephanomeria, as well as certain similarities between their pappi and concluded the taxon belonged in Stephanomeria. Tomb (1974) agreed and added that pollen size and sculpturing were similar to that of Stephanomeria.

Carlquist (1974) nicely described the mode of branch growth in Munzothamnus blairii. At the end of the first year, basal lateral buds on the main stem produce side shoots. At the end of the second year, those shoots produce terminal clusters of heads. At the end of the third year, the same side shoots produce new lateral shoots from distal nodes below the heads. Thus, the plants produce shoots from lateral buds both at the base of the stem and from nodes on side shoots below the terminal clusters. This architectural pattern is not found in Stephanomeria.

Pleiacanthus spinosus also now appears to belong in a monotypic genus. The taxon is widespread in open, sandy or gravelly washes and on slopes in desert shrub and pinyon–juniper communities in the deserts of Arizona and California and north to Oregon and Montana. It was first collected by Nuttall, who placed it in a subgenus of Lygodesmia D. Don that he erected for the purpose. Rydberg (1917) elevated it to genus status, but his proposal was not taken up by others. The taxon remained in Lygodesmia until Tomb (1970) transferred it to Stephanomeria. Tomb made the transfer because P. spinosus has the same chromosome number as Stephanomeria as well as similar echinate pollen grains and thus differs from Lygodesmia, which has n = 9 and echinolophate pollen. Our larger study of all genera usually associated with the Stephanomeriinae (to be reported separately) showed that Lygodesmia belongs neither to that subtribe or to Microseridinae or Malacothricinae. Pleiacanthus spinosus has several interesting unique traits: dense, long tufts of woolly hairs in the ground-level axils of bud scales of the stems, sharp-tipped branches and stems, and nonplumose pappus bristles of two lengths.

The sister relationship between Pleiacanthus spinosus and Prenanthella exigua revealed in this study (Fig. 3) harks back to the point of view of Gray (1874) , who considered both taxa as congeners within Lygodesmia. Rydberg (1906, 1917) removed Prenanthella exigua from Lygodesmia, but his ideas were ignored. Tomb (1972) reinstated Prenanthella because its chromosome number (n = 7) differs from that of Lygodesmia and because its echinate pollen also distinguishes it from the latter genus. Pleiacanthus and Prenanthella differ in many respects including chromosome number and habit; both have nonplumose pappus bristles of two lengths, highly reduced heads with only 3–5 florets, and bractlike cauline leaves. The chromosome number of Prenanthella appears to have been derived independently from the same number found elsewhere among the western North American Lactuceae (i.e., Anisocoma Torr. & A. Gray, Calycoseris A. Gray, and Malacothrix).

Within Stephanomeria, the sister relationship between S. lactucina and S. cichoriacea was not foreseen (Fig. 3). The two species are found in very different habitats (montane vs. coastal) and differ in a large number of morphological traits. The number of site differences between them in this study was larger (31.7) than nearly all values found between other pairs of perennial taxa within the genus and suggests their relationship may indeed be ancient. The matter needs further study.

The two taxa from Baja California, S. monocephala and S. guadalupensis, are another example of extreme morphological and ecological divergence in Stephanomeria. Stephanomeria monocephala is known only from five sheltered sites in rocky, high montane habitats of the Sierra de San Pedro Mártir (Moran, 1969 ). Unlike any other stephanomeria, it is caespitose and grows as a dense cushion with solitary heads borne on short peduncles. Stephanomeria guadalupensis is endemic to Isla Guadalupe, where it persists on nearly vertical cliffs. The species grows as clumps, 3–5 dm high (up to 15 dm high at flowering), and has the largest leaves of any stephanomeria (up to 30 x 9 cm).

The four perennial species from mostly outside the California Floristic Province form a well-supported subclade within the larger clade that includes S. pauciflora and all the annual species (Fig. 3). Stephanomeria tenuifolia is the most widespread species of the genus, distributed over 200 x 106 ha in interior, western North America, and is found in crevices below cliffs derived from volcanic, granitic, and other rocks in montane regions. The species shows remarkable variability in the form and dimensions of its stems and branches, varying from plants with numerous, slender, almost threadlike stems to stems that are sparingly branched and flexuose. Its architectural variability has perplexed many taxonomists and the species has collected a number of names, all now considered synonyms (L. D. Gottlieb, unpublished manuscript). In the present study, we sampled three populations: Park County, Montana, USA; Kittitas County, Washington, USA; and Plumas County, California, USA. The number of pairwise differences among them (10 or 12 sites) is about the same as that between an average pair of annual species. In reproductive features, S. tenuifolia closely resembles S. runcinata and S. fluminea from the same subclade (for example, the three species are distinctive in the genus in having heads with few florets and white pappus bristles that are plumose along their entire lengths). But the two close relatives of S. tenuifolia are ecologically specialized. Stephanomeria runcinata is frequently found on eroded siltstones, clay flats, and alkali soils and has a wide distribution in the Rocky Mountains and east and north to Saskatchewan, Nebraska, and North Dakota. Stephanomeria fluminea grows only on raised cobble benches in a few creek beds in northwestern Wyoming; morphologically, the species is quite unusual in the genus in having long cauline leaves (up to 6 cm) that persist and remain green at flowering (Gottlieb, 1999 ). Stephanomeria runcinata and S. fluminea differ at only a single site, suggesting the latter species evolved quite recently. Indeed, its habitat was covered by the massive Pinedale glacier as recently as 18 000–20 000 yr ago. Stephanomeria thurberi is found principally in Arizona, New Mexico, and adjacent Mexico, growing in sandy sites in juniper–mesquite grasslands and also in yellow pine forests. The relationship of S. pauciflora, a species of the warm deserts, to the four species with more northern distributions is not resolved here. On the basis of pairwise site differences, S. pauciflora is about equally different from all of them (Table 1). All of the annual stephanomerias are found in the same clade as these five perennials. The short branch lengths of the annual lineages, which are similar to those of the four perennials (the ones in the group including S. tenuifolia), suggest all these species diverged much more recently than did the perennial species outside the clade.

Although the present sequence data do not resolve relationships among the annual taxa, the reproductive compatibilities of the annuals, which are expected to be closely correlated with these relationships, are very well known as a result of previous intensive biosystematic studies (Gottlieb, 1971 ). Those studies sorted out the annual taxa by combining morphological analyses of numerous populations from throughout their distributions with studies of their breeding systems, cytological features, crossability, hybrid fertility, and chromosome homology as revealed by cytogenetic analysis of experimentally produced F1 hybrids.

Stephanomeria virgata contains two subspecies that share a number of morphological features, have a similar karyotype, and are highly compatible reproductively. The F1 hybrid progenies were 78–90% fertile, based on pollen stainability. Stephanomeria exigua is more complex and includes geographically separable subspecies of varying degrees of morphological similarity. Their F1 hybrid progenies had mean pollen stainabilities ranging from 16 to 81%, with an overall mean of 49%. Pollen stainability of F1 hybrids between the two species was significantly reduced, ranging from 8 to 21%, with an overall mean of 14% (based on 20 different progenies). Reductions in pollen stainability were closely correlated with differences in chromosome structural homology.

Stephanomeria virgata and S. exigua differ in numerous morphological traits and in their karyotype. The traits of S. diegensis are an amalgam of their differences, which suggested an hypothesis of hybridity to explain its origin. Stephanomeria diegensis is abundant and usually encountered in pioneer habits such as old clearings, chaparral openings, and sandy roadside embankments in southern California, USA. Experimental hybrids between S. diegensis and both S. virgata and S. exigua, involving both subspecies of the former and three of the latter, showed only 1–2% viable pollen, probably resulting from additional chromosomal repatterning (Gottlieb, 1971 ). Electrophoretic differences in isozymes encoded by 20 loci were examined in the three species (Gallez and Gottlieb, 1982 ). Stephanomeria virgata and S. exigua showed a relatively high genetic identity (I = 0.81) and had different alleles at 20% of the genes examined. The gene pool of S. diegensis proved to be a composite of the genes of the two species, with only one, very rare, unique allele. Thus, the electrophoretic results were concordant with the evidence from morphology, karyotype, and other attributes, together suggesting that S. diegensis arose following the stabilization of hybrid segregants from a natural cross between the two divergent diploid relatives.

The present data, including ten sequences from the five subspecies of S. exigua, four sequences from the two subspecies of S. virgata, and two fully identical sequences from S. diegensis, bear on this issue. The pairwise differences between each of the sequences and that of S. diegensis (Table 1) make evident that S. exigua subsp. deanei is most similar to S. diegensis, differing at only two or three sites. The next most similar sequence to that of S. diegensis is that of S. exigua subsp. exigua, which differs at 8 sites; the other three subspecies of S. exigua differ at 9–18 sites. The sequence of S. diegensis also differs from those of the two subspecies of S. virgata at 9 and 14 sites, respectively. Consequently, on this evidence, S. exigua subsp. deanei is the most likely candidate to have contributed the sequence of S. diegensis and to be a parent. The bootstrap tree (Fig. 3) strongly supports this relationship of S. diegensis to either S. exigua subsp. deanei or subsp. exigua.

If S. diegensis had a hybrid origin as described, there are three possible expectations for any gene locus: S. diegensis might have a sequence like one of the parents or, if the locus was at a different chromosomal position in the two parents, the sequences of both parents might be found, or the sequence might show some recombination of the sequences of the two parents. The sequence found in S. diegensis is unlikely to have resulted from recombination between sequences derived from S. exigua subsp. deanei and S. virgata, although at the two sites that S. diegensis differs from S. exigua subsp. deanei, it does resemble S. virgata. The two sites are 30 bases apart within the ETS region and are flanked by sites fewer than 200 bases apart at which S. diegensis differs from both subspecies of S. virgata. Thus, the required recombination would involve an improbable double crossover in a very small region. It is much more likely that the difference between S. diegensis and S. exigua subsp. deanei at the two sites in question arose by base substitutions, especially considering that S. diegensis resembles other subspecies of S. exigua at these positions. In conclusion, the ITS/ETS sequence data suggest the source of one parent of S. diegensis, but offer no information about a second parent.

The sequence data provide significant information that corroborates a previous hypothesis regarding the parentage of S. malheurensis (Gottlieb, 1973, 1977, 1979 ; Brauner and Gottlieb, 1989 ). This species is known only from a single locality in Harney County, Oregon, USA, where it grows on an island of soil derived from volcanic tuff. Stephanomeria exigua subsp. coronaria also grows at this site, but the locality is at the northern limit of its distribution. The two species have different breeding systems; S. malheurensis is predominantly self-pollinating and S. exigua subsp. coronaria is obligately outcrossing. The two species are very similar in morphological attributes. Electrophoretic analyses of their isozymes suggested that the genome of S. malheurensis was a subset of its sympatric congener. The two species are reproductively isolated by barriers that reduce their crossability and reduce the fertility of any hybrids between them. The early evidence suggested that S. malheurensis arose directly from the sympatric population of S. exigua subsp. coronaria following a mutation that modified its outcrossing breeding system and led to a rapid and abrupt series of events in a descendant lineage, reducing its variability as homozygosity built up. Such a mutation in the sympatric population of the proposed parent was eventually discovered (Brauner and Gottlieb, 1987 ). The bootstrap tree (Fig. 3) shows the two taxa as components of a single subclade, with 96% bootstrap support. Four sequences of S. exigua subsp. coronaria were determined; they differ from the sequence of S. malheurensis at one to three sites, depending on the comparison, with an average pairwise difference of 1.8, a much smaller difference than between S. malheurensis and any other taxon (Table 1).

In summary, the sequence analysis of the ITS/ETS rDNA provides a valuable picture of the relationships of Stephanomeria to other genera as well as of many of its constituent species. Additional analysis of genes encoding proteins will hopefully further clarify the relationships among the annual members and reveal how they relate to the perennials.


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Appendix 1. Taxon abbreviations used in Table 1, Fig. 2, and Fig. 3. Numbers following abbreviations refer to samples from different populations. See the American Journal of Botany Supplementary Data web site (http://ajbsupp.botany.org/v89) for voucher data (also archived as hard copy in JEPS)

 

    FOOTNOTES
 
1 The authors thank Vera Ford (University of California, Davis) and John L. Strother (University of California, Berkeley) for comments that improved the manuscript; Bridget Wessa (University of California, Berkeley) for laboratory assistance; and Francisco F. Pedroche (UAM-Iztapalapa, Mexico), Holly Forbes (University of California Botanical Garden), and Jon Rebman (San Diego Natural History Museum) for providing plant materials. This work was supported by a postdoctoral fellowship (to JL) from the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation (KOSEF) and a grant (to JL) from the Lawrence R. Heckard Endowment Fund of the Jepson Herbarium, University of California, Berkeley. Back

4 Author for reprint requests (bbaldwin{at}uclink4.berkeley.edu ). Back


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 MATERIALS AND METHODS
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