Sepideh Piroozi, - School of Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
Mohsen Falahati–Anbaran - School of Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
Farideh Attar, - School of Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
Kazem Mehdigholi - School of Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

Pterocephalus (Caprifoliaceae) consists of 30 species worldwide distributed mostly in the temperate region of the northern hemisphere, in which 14 species reported in Iran including 5 endemic species. In this study, we studied nucleotide variation and genealogical relationships among 15 samples from 11 species of Pterocephalus using nuclear internal transcribed spacers (ITS) and plastid trnL-trnF regions. We also included three Mediterranean Pterocephalus species as ingroup with two Scabiosa and one Dipsacus species as outgroup. Our results showed that the studied taxa can be divided into five lineages including two major groups, that is supported with both ITS and trnL-trnF and morphological data. A low level of nucleotide diversity was observed in trnL-trnF region compared to that found in ITS region. Contrary to topology obtained with ITS data, a high degree of polytomy was found in trnL-trnF and a low bootstrap support was observed in phylogenetic analyses including maximum likelihood and Bayesian inferences. Phylogenetic tree obtained from combined nrDNA and cpDNA data revealed highly supported clades.

Pterocephalus, Caprifoliaceae, phylogenetic analyses, ITS, trnL-trnF.