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MBE Advance Access published online on August 30, 2006
Molecular Biology and Evolution, doi:10.1093/molbev/msl099
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© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org
Accepted August 24, 2006

Letter

Tracking Ancient Polyploids: A Retroposon Insertion Reveals an Extinct Diploid Ancestor in the Polyploid Origin of Belladonna

Yao-wu Yuan 1 *, Zhi-yun Zhang 2, Zhi-duan Chen 2, and Richard G. Olmstead 3

1 Sate Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 20 Nanxincun, Xiangshan, Beijing, 100093, P.R.China; Department of Biology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
2 Sate Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 20 Nanxincun, Xiangshan, Beijing, 100093, P.R.China
3 Department of Biology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Yao-wu Yuan, E-mail: colreeze{at}u.washington.edu


  Abstract

Polyploidy is a prominent process in plant evolution and adaptation, but molecular phylogenetic studies of polyploids based on DNA sequences have often been confounded by their complex gene and genome histories. We report here a retroposon insertion in the nuclear gene Granule-bound starch synthase I (GBSSI or waxy) that clearly reveals the ancient hybrid history of the medically-important, polyploid species belladonna (Atropa belladonna) and resolves the controversy over the taxonomic group to which it belongs, the tribe Hyoscyameae (Solanaceae). Our inferences based on the pattern of presence or absence of the retroposon insertion are corroborated by phylogenetic analyses of the GBSSI gene sequences. This case may suggest that retroposons are promising molecular markers to study polyploid evolution.

Keywords: Retroposon insertion; SINEs; Hyoscyameae; Atropa belladonna; polyploid; Phylogeny.
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