tRNALeu intron (UAA) of Ficus carica L.: genetic diversity and evolutionary patterns

Cytoplasmic chloroplast DNA was explored to establish genetic relationships among Ficus carica cultivars and elucidate the molecular evolution of the species. The results suggest the occurrence of haplotype and nucleotide diversity. Conserved group I intron sequence motifs were detected and showed a common secondary structure, despite the presence of some mutations on their sequences. The neighbor-joining dendrogram showed a continuous diversity that characterizes local resources. The maximum parsimony tree, with an RI index of 0.507, indicated minimal homoplasy within the data set. Furthermore, our results demonstrate that the trnL intron is the seat of numerous substitutions. Herein, new insight on the mechanism involved in the evolution of the trnL intron in the fig is presented. From the study, it appears that there is an explicit rejection of the null hypothesis in F. carica. A scenario of positive selection and recent expansion of F. carica genotypes across Tunisia seems to be retained.