title: Phylogeny of Helieae (Gentianaceae): Resolving taxonomic chaos in a Neotropical clade.
abstract: The monophyletic and Neotropical tribe Helieae of the worldwide family Gentianaceae (Gentianales, Asterids, Angiospermae) is well known for its problematic generic classifications. An initial phylogenetic analysis of Helieae shed light onto the relationships between genera, and indicated that traditional generic limits did not correspond to monophyletic groups. In order to obtain a more thorough understanding of generic relationships within the group, we enhanced sampling within the so-called Symbolanthus clade and performed phylogenetic analyses from DNA sequences from one plastid region (matK) and two nuclear regions (ITS and 5S-NTS), plus 112 morphological characters, which were analyzed separately and in combination, using parsimony and Bayesian approaches. A total of 83 individuals representing 20 genera and 51 species of Helieae were sampled; 13 species were included in this study solely based on their morphological characters. Ancestral character reconstructions were performed to identify potential synapomorphies of clades and patterns of homoplasy in the morphological dataset. Our results demonstrate that Prepusa is sister to the remainder of Helieae. Furthermore, the Macrocarpaea clade, the Irlbachia clade and the Symbolanthus clade were also recovered. Within the Symbolanthus clade, our results confirm that Calolisianthus and Chelonanthus are not monophyletic, and also contest the monophyly of Irlbachia as currently circumscribed. Specifically, two species of Calolisianthus group with the type species of Chelonanthus, while the other Calolisianthus species are more closely related to Tetrapollinia and Symbolanthus. Moreover, the green-white-flowered Chelonanthus species and Adenolisianthus are undoubtedly related to Helia and several analyses support Irlbachia pratensis as more closely related to the lineage including the type species of Chelonanthus described above The addition of new characters and taxa led to higher confidence in the relative position of some clades, as well as provided further support for a new generic circumscription of Calolisianthus, Chelonanthus, and Helia. Even though several morphological characters traditionally used in the taxonomy of the group were shown to be homoplasious, most clades can be diagnosed by a combination of morphological character states.
authors.affiliation: Universidade de São Paulo, Instituto de Biociências, Departamento de Botânica, Rua do Matão, 277, CEP: 05508-090 São Paulo, SP, Brazil. Electronic address: mfecalio@unicamp.br.
authors.forename: Maria Fernanda
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Calió
authors.affiliation: Rutgers University, Department of Plant Biology, 59 Dudley Road, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA. Electronic address: klepis@monmouth.edu.
authors.forename: Katherine B
authors.initials: KB
authors.lastname: Lepis
authors.affiliation: Universidade de São Paulo, Instituto de Biociências, Departamento de Botânica, Rua do Matão, 277, CEP: 05508-090 São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: José Rubens
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Pirani
authors.affiliation: Rutgers University, Department of Plant Biology, 59 Dudley Road, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA; Rutgers University, Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources, 14 College Farm Road, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA.
authors.forename: Lena
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Struwe
mesh_terms: D001499:Bayes Theorem; D018744:DNA, Plant / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000378:metabolism; D030541:Databases, Genetic; D035264:Flowers / Q000235:genetics; D029965:Gentianaceae / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics; D010802:Phylogeny; D018087:Plastids / Q000235:genetics; D012341:RNA, Ribosomal, 5S / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D018744:DNA, Plant; D012341:RNA, Ribosomal, 5S
keywords: 5S-NTS; Gentianales; ITS; Morphology; Neotropics; Systematics; matK