Homoplasy Patterns of Morphological Characters of sects. Acanthoprason and Asteroprason in the Genus Allium L. based on Phylogeny of nrDNA ITS Sequences

In this study, the evolutionary trend of the morphological characters of the sects. Acanthoprason and Asteroprason from the genus Allium, on the basis of nrDNA ITS sequences data, was investigated. For this purpose, 33 species include 30 species from sects. Acanthoprason and Asteroprason as in-group as well as 3 species belonging to adjacent sections as out-group were selected. For tracing patterns of character evolution, 6 vegetative and reproductive characters includes leaf morphology and its margin, tepals morphology, length and color of filament and color of anther were selected. ITS sequences of the species were assessed and phylogenetic trees were constructed by Bayesian analysis and along with list of the species and code of the characters entered to Mesquite and the respective tree was obtained. Generally, regarding to mapping morphological characters on the evolutionary tree, the characters have great homoplasy. The present analysis revealed that the most studied morphological characters were not in agreement with the results of molecular data and their role in the classification and separation of the species is uncertain.