Seher Karaman Erkul

Increasing phylogenetic support for explosively radiating taxa: The promise of high‐throughput sequencing for Oxytropis (Fabaceae)

The origin and evolution of alpine biota are not yet fully understood, particularly in the vast Asian mountain regions. In addition, in these regions, most studies have concentrated on taxa occurring in areas benefitting from relatively generous rainfall from the summer monsoon. In this study, we collected a large number of Oxytropis species throughout their distribution range, and investigated the taxonomy and evolution of this diverse legume genus, which also occurs in mountainous areas prone to drought. Using nuclear (ITS) and plastid (trnL‐F) markers, we reconstructed phylogenetic relationships within Oxytropis, conducting maximum parsimony, fasttree‐like, maximum likelihood, Bayesian, and BEAST analyses. We also used Anchored Hybrid Enrichment (AHE) to test the power of this method to resolve relationships among a small subset of Oxytropis species. For AHE, we sampled eight species and obtained 527 low‐copy and orthologous nuclear loci. We show that the taxonomy of this genus that radiated explosively in Asian mountains will remain recalcitrant based on conventional molecular methods. Because of a severe lack of resolution, none of the available taxonomic treatments for Oxytropis could either be confirmed or refuted based upon ITS and trnL‐F. Nevertheless, we confirm the status of several species, and identify morphological or genetic particularities for some groups of species. The AHE approach yielded a highly supported phylogenetic tree, suggesting that increased taxon sampling coupled with AHE methods promise advances in the study of the taxonomy and evolution of Oxytropis, thus providing further analytical opportunities, such as diversification rate and biogeographical analyses.

Antioxidative, antimicrobial and cytotoxic properties of Isatis floribunda Boiss. ex Bornm. extracts.

The Isatis species has antibacterial, anticancer and antiviral properties and these important endemic plants grow widely in various parts of Anatolian-Turkey. In the present study, the antioxidant activities of Isatis floribunda Boiss. ex Bornm. flower and root extracts were determined with total antioxidant activity, free radical scavenging activity, ferric ion reducing power, and cupric ion reducing antioxidant capacity assay. The total phenolic compounds and flavonoids were also examined for the extracts. The antimicrobial activities of the extracts were investigated by using the disc diffusion and microdilution-broth methods against human and fish pathogen microorganisms. The phenolic composition of I. floribunda root methanolic extract was analyzed by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The major component in the extract was cholorogenic acid (1980.20 µg/g). The cytotoxic effect of the methanolic root extract was also tested on human breast cell (MCF12A). The results showed that I. floribunda could be used as a natural source in the food and feed industry and clinical and food chemistry, and that the antimicrobial agents could be used against human and fish pathogens.

Karyological studies on Oxytropis (Fabaceae) from Turkey

The karyological analyses of 11 species, one taxon of which is endemic of Oxytropis (Fabaceae), distributed in Turkey were examined in this study. Among these taxa, the chromosome numbers were as follows: 2n = 16 in Oxytropis kotschyana, O. pallasii, O. pilosa, O. savellanica, O. persica, O. albana, O. argyroleuca, O. aucheri, O. karjaginii, O. lupinoides; and 2n = 96 in O. lazica. The karyotype analysis of taxa belonging to the genus Oxytropis was performed using Image Analysis System (Bs200Pro).