Phylogeny of Schinus l. (Anacardiaceae)

Abstract

Schinus comprises approximately 33 species that are mostly restricted to southern South America. The Schinus species are distributed in two subgenera characterized by a character combination not always consistent, and species delimitation of Schinus subg. Duvaua sect. Euduvaua taxa remains controversial. The most recent taxonomic revision was published in 1957, however it is evident that there are still species delimitation issues requiring new taxonomic studies. Phylogenetic systematic studies on Anacardiaceae are still scarce for the Neotropical and Austral South American region. In this way a phylogenetic study of Schinus using morphological and molecular data can help to clarify and provide insights into understanding the taxonomic and phylogenetic relationship among Schinus species. This project aims to reconstruct a phylogeny of Schinus based on morphological and molecular characters, which later will be used to propose an infrageneric classification based on phylogenetic, taxonomic and morphological studies. In addition, a Schinus phylogenetic study will also enable robust biogeographic analysis. A total of 47 Schinus taxa will be sampled and species of five genera closely related to Schinus will be used as the outgroup. Schinus phylogeny will be estimated using maximum parsimony and Bayesian inference analysis of nuclear and chloroplast sequences. The resulting manuscript on Schinus phylogeny will be a chapter of the Ph.D. thesis entitled "Systematic and biogeography of Schinus L. (Anacardiaceae)." (AU)