Molecular Evidence for the Hybrid Origin of Bauhinia blakeana （Caesalpinioideae）.pdfVIP

JournalofIntegrative P『anfBiology 2008，50(1)：111—118 Molecular Evidence for the Hybrid Origin of Bauhinia blakeana(Caesalpinioideae) Chun Yin Mak，Ka Shing Cheung，Pui Ying Yip and Hoi Shan Kwan。 (Department of Biology,The Chinese University of Hong Kong，Shatin，Hong Kong，China) Abstract Bauhinia blakeana Dunn is the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region emblem and a popular horticultural species in many Asian countries．It was first described as a new species from Hong Kong almost a century ago．This plant is sterile and has long been considered a hybrid，possibly from two related species，B．purpurea and B．variegata．However，not much evidence based on molecular methods was available to support this hypothesis．In this study．sequences of internaI transcribed spacer 1(ITS1)，rbcL and alpB-rbcL intergenic spacer for five Bauhinia species and two varieties of one of the species were determined and compared．There were two types of ITSl sequences in B．b~keana，one indistinguiShabIe from that of B．purl=Iurea and the other one identicaI to that of B．vaHega~．This confirm ed that B．blakeana was a hybrid of these tw o species．Chloroplast alpB·rbcL intergenic spacer sequence of B．blakeana was identicaI to that of B．purpurea． indicating that B．purpurea was the female parent．The hybridization event seemed to occur only recently and was a rare incident．Its occurrence was likely facilitated by interspecific pollen competition．It appeared that human efforts played a cruciaI role in the preservation and ubiquity of B．blakeana． Key words：atpB—rbcL intergenic spacer；Bauhinia；internal transcribed spacer 1：interspeciflc hybrid；interspecific pollen competition Mak CY，Cheung KS，Yip PY，Kwan HS(2008)．Molecular evidence for the hybrid origin of Bauhinia blakeana(Caesalpinioideae)．J．Integr．Plant Bio1．50(1)，111—118． Available online at ww．jipb net Bauhinia blakeana Dunn(Hong Kong Orchid T