In this study, phylogenetic relationships among 39
Phlomis
taxa were investigated based on seed protein
profiles produced by sodium dodecyl sulphate
polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). A total
of 21 polypeptide bands were scored, of which, 19 were
polymorphic among the taxa of the genus
Phlomis. A
distance matrix was generated from the similarity
matrix which was computed by using Jaccard’s
similarity coefficients, based on polymorphic bands and
then an UPGMA tree was established through cluster
analysis performed on the distance matrix. Genetic
distances ranged from 0.00 to 0.50 within subsection
Dendrophlomis; from 0.00 to 0.625 within subsection
Gymnophlomis and from 0.00 to 0.769 within subsection
Oxyphlomis. The UPGMA tree formed four groups. The
topology of the tree is in agreement with the taxonomic
view regarding the section
Phlomis as it is divided into
three subsections as
Dendrophlomis, Gymnophlomis and
Oxyphlomis based on morphological characters. The
grouping pattern of the tree also indicated that
subsection
Dendrophlomis is more closely related to
subsection
Gymnophlomis than subsection
Oxyphlomis.
