Phylogeny of wild and cultivatedSolanum species based on nuclear restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs)

Phylogenetic relationships between 14 wild and 3 cultivatedSolanum species, including the European potato,Solanum tuberosum ssp.tuberosum, were inferred using DNA restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs) as discriminating characters. Phenetic trees were obtained based on distance matrices as well as on parsimony methods, which were not significantly altered either by the computational method used, or by the individual plant genotypes or RFLP markers chosen for the analysis. The reliability of the tree topologies was assessed and, as expected, it increased with the number of polymorphic restriction fragments scored. The individual genotypes within each species, the different species themselves, and the main branches of the trees were clearly separated from each other. The least reliable parts in the trees were the positions of closely related species within the main clusters.S. tuberosum spp.tuberosum formed one group closely related withS. tuberosum spp.andigena,S. stenotomum, andS. canasense. This was well separated from a second group formed byS. sparsipilum,berthaultii,kurtzianum,gourlayi,vernei,spegazzinii,chacoense, andmegistacrolobum. Two further branches were formed byS. demissum andS. acaule, and byS. polyadenium,S. pinnatisectum,S. stoloniferum, andS. etuberosum. The phenetic trees presented here supported the description of relationships amongSolanum species based on biosystematic studies, with the exception of the placement ofS. chacoense andS. megistacrolobum.