Applicability of its Data in Roccellaceae (Arthoniales, Euascomycetes) Phylogeny

The ability of the internal transcribed spacers (ITS regions) of ribosomal DNA to resolve phylogenetic relationships within the euascomycetous order Arthoniales, focusing on the family Roccellaceae was investigated. The effect of alignment on phylogenetic hypotheses was evaluated. A data matrix from the ITS regions was constructed from 33 specimens representing 14 genera, including the outgroup Arthothelium spectabile. Six different alignments were analysed cladistically using parsimony jackknifing. Most groups in the six trees were congruent and well supported under the different alignment settings. In a conservative analysis, where only unambiguously alignable regions were included, the resolution was low. These results indicate that the ITS regions contain phylogenetic structure, and all information, including the variable regions, should be utilised. A data matrix from the SSU rDNA sequences was constructed for the same taxa. The SSU rDNA tree was less resolved than the ITS trees. There were only minor conflicts between the two sources of data and an incongruence test confirmed that the ITS and SSU rDNA data matrices were not significantly incongruent. The six differently aligned data matrices generated from the ITS regions were each combined with the SSUrDNA data. Simultaneous analysis of the combined data sets is the best approach as it uses all available evidence. As with the ITS trees, most groups in the combined trees were congruent and well supported. The SSU rDNA provided resolution within one clade, otherwise the ITS sequences provided most of the signal in the combined analysis, both at the basal nodes and at the tips of the tree. Molecular data clearly indicates that the fruticose/crustose habits have evolved multiple times even in comparatively small groups as in the family Roccellaceae and that the characters such as fruticose-crustose may be overemphasized in morphological analyses.