title: The First Comprehensive Phylogeny of Coptis (Ranunculaceae) and Its Implications for Character Evolution and Classification.
abstract: Coptis (Ranunculaceae) contains 15 species and is one of the pharmaceutically most important plant genera in eastern Asia. Understanding of the evolution of morphological characters and phylogenetic relationships within the genus is very limited. Here, we present the first comprehensive phylogenetic analysis of the genus based on two plastid and one nuclear markers. The phylogeny was reconstructed using Bayesian inference, as well as maximum parsimony and maximum likelihood methods. The Swofford-Olsen-Waddell-Hillis and Bayesian tests were used to assess the strength of the conflicts between traditional taxonomic units and those suggested by the phylogenetic inferences. Evolution of morphological characters was inferred using Bayesian method to identify synapomorphies for the infrageneric lineages. Our data recognize two strongly supported clades within Coptis. The first clade contains subgenus Coptis and section Japonocoptis of subgenus Metacoptis, supported by morphological characters, such as traits of the central leaflet base, petal color, and petal shape. The second clade consists of section Japonocoptis of subgenus Metacoptis. Coptis morii is not united with C. quinquefolia, in contrast with the view that C. morii is a synonym of C. quinquefolia. Two varieties of C. chinensis do not cluster together. Coptis groenlandica and C. lutescens are reduced to C. trifolia and C. japonica, respectively. Central leaflet base, sepal shape, and petal blade carry a strong phylogenetic signal in Coptis, while leaf type, sepal and petal color, and petal shape exhibit relatively higher levels of evolutionary flexibility.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100093, China.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
authors.forename: Kun-Li
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Xiang
authors.affiliation: College of Life Sciences, Shanxi Normal University, Linfen, 041004, China.
authors.forename: Sheng-Dan
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100093, China.
authors.forename: Sheng-Xian
authors.initials: SX
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, 06269-3043, United States of America.
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Institut de Systématique, Evolution, Biodiversité, UMR 7205 ISYEB MNHN/CNRS/UPMC/EPHE, Sorbonne Universités, Paris, 75005, France.
authors.forename: Florian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Jabbour
authors.affiliation: Central Siberian Botanical Garden of the Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, Zolotodolinskaya str. 101, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia.|Laboratory of Systematics and Phylogeny of Plants, National Research Tomsk State University, prospekt Lenina 36, Tomsk, 634050, Russia.
authors.forename: Andrey S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Erst
authors.affiliation: College of Life Sciences, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi, 712100, China.
authors.forename: Liang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100093, China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100093, China.
authors.forename: Zhi-Duan
authors.initials: ZD
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D005075:Biological Evolution; D039323:Coptis / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics*; D058893:DNA Barcoding, Taxonomic; D017343:Genes, Plant; D010641:Phenotype; D010802:Phylogeny; D010946:Plants, Medicinal / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics