Chapter 4

The Utility of Molecular Sequence Data in Phylogenetic Analysis of Bryoflora

Saumya Pandey and Afroz Alam

Abstract

The molecular sequence data have been utilized immensely to resolve the phylogeny of bryophytes, primarily the monophyletic relationship of bryophytes and their position in the evolution of land plants. However, the study also described division bryophyta as a paraphyletic group with only one of its classes related to the vascular plants and another one sister to all other land plants. The debatable position of earliest diverging lineages of the mosses such as Takakia and Sphagnum spp., and other genera can also be resolved more accurately with increasing knowledge of fast DNA sequencing techniques and bioinformatics tools. Different nuclear-encoded genes (18S, 26S) or chloroplast genes (trnF-trnL, psbA, rbcL, rps4) and mitochondrial encoded genes (Cob intron, nad2, nad5) emerge as the suitable marker to understand the deep level of the molecular phylogeny of bryophytes. The selection of suitable markers, evolutionary model and phylogenetic tree evaluation methods are necessary for the better understanding of molecular phylogeny.

Total Pages: 38-51 (14)

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