نشریه تاکسونومی و بیوسیستماتیک
سال یازدهم شماره 1 (پیاپی 38، بهار 1398)

One of the most commonly used methods for estimating environmental conditions using plants is the use of Elenberg Indicator values. However, due to objections to the Elenberger system (including caution in its use outside Central Europe), in this study, inaddition to EIVs, three calibration methods (weighted averaging, species response curves by using HOF models, adjusting the original EIVs with respect to a measured gradient using the HOF models) were used to calculate indicator values (IVs) of species in a Hyrcanian forest for two environmental factors (soil reaction or acidity (R) and nitrogen (N)). Also, two bioindication methods WA1 (cover-weighted average) and WA2 (cover-weighted average based on reciprocal squared tolerance values) were used to predict mean R and N values using EIVs, IVs and cover of species for each releve. Then, the regression of the mean values of environmental factors against the measured environmental values in each releve was performed. In general the performance of bioindication methods for soil acidity and nitrogen varied from 1.35- 32.5% and 3.6- 36.7% of the explained variance, respectively. In addition, calibration methods (especially the weighted average method) resulted in better results compared to Elenberg values.

The Fagaceae family is comprised of 8 genera with over 1000 different species. Despite many advances in understanding phylogenetic relationships based on molecular data, the existence of hybrids and/or the presence of ambiguous sequences justify careful observation of morphological, anatomical, and ecological characters of the Fagaceae. Therefore, the present study was conducted with the aim of investigating the morphological and anatomical characteristics the leaf of existing taxa in different habitats in Iran to identify and establish their similarities and dissimilarities relationships between them. Thus, 52 quantitative and qualitative characters from the leaf were studied. Cluster Analysis and Principal Components Analysis (PCA) were done based on Euclidean distance and covariance characteristics, respectively. The results obtained from PCA were consistent with cluster analysis. The results showed that the presence or absence of grooves in the petiole, petiole length, leaf width, leaf outline, the presence of trichomes between the midrib and secondary veins behind the leaf, the presence of cilia on the leaf margins were important morphological traits in the Fagaceae family. Some leaf anatomical characters such as venation density, midrib thickness, the presence or absence of trichomes, different shapes and sizes of trichomes, trichomes density, thickness and variety of epicuticular waxes and their shapes, stomatal size and density would be taxonomically useful for species.

Microcharacters of seed coat and its surface patterns are valuable in the systematic consideration in some genera. The aim of this study was to introduce the application of these data in assisting the identification of Vicia L. species.Micromorphological traits of 90 seeds from 20 species of the genera of the Vicia were studied in order to answer some systematic questions regarding this genus. The morphology of the surface of these species were examined using a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The results of the observations and analyses indicated that the pattern of seed coat ornamentation was of Papillose type and their SEM pattern varied within and between accessions in terms of tip-shape of the papillae, size (height), and amount of conation of papillae side ride. These traits can be used in taxonomic revision of the Vicia genus. Based on these seed coat ornamentation traits, four categories namely Colliculate with Tuberculate, Aculate projections from projections peaks, Aculate and Tuberculate from below the peak were identified. These analyses can provide good evidence for the close relationship of related species from the different species in a genus. It presents a comprehensive guide regarding variety classification and cultivar introduction.

 Alamut Floristic Database collects information on the presence of plant species in different parts of Iran, and along with floristic data storage/retrieval, it has software to use the data. With the growth of data stored in the Alamut floristic database and the creation of new sectors, such as the climatic data segment, access to problem-based data has become important. Effective access to data is performed by SQL codes, which is often difficult for regular users. This paper introduces three new tools for the Alamut database. APL (Alamut Programmed Lists) compiler, the Command Line, both for extracting data as programmed lists, along with the List Maker Program, which is used for creating new species inventories without spelling errors and for automatically sorting the inventory according to APG IV classification. This paper also includes some example programs written by using APL.

DNA barcoding is one of the developing methods in molecular systematics for the identification of species. psbA- trnH is one of the most variable noncoding regions of chloroplast genome and a standard DNA barcode for plant species. However, intraspecific inversions limited the ability of this barcode in the identification of species. The efficiency of these structural changes in the identification of Capparis spinosa genre, including C. spinosa, C. parviflora, C. mucronifolia and C. cartilaginea, was investigated in the present study. Twenty five sequences from 4 species of this complex and 3 other species of the genus Capparis was aligned. The results revealed intraspecific polymorphism in 2 regions of psbA-trnH (8% of whole region) in this group. Analysis of data showed that ignoring these inversions has led to overestimating intraspecific divergence, underestimating interspecific divergence, and disability of psbA-trnH in the identification of closely related taxa. Using reverse complementary sequence may partly overcome this problem. Based on the results of this study, it can be recommended that sampling from a wide geographic range of a species would reveal more intra-specific molecular variation and increase the efficiency of a DNA barcode.

The genus Rubus, from the family ofRosaceae Juss, has about 750 species worldwide, of which 8 species and 5 hybrids have been reported from Iran. The present study was conducted to evaluate the genetic diversity of 21 populations of 6 species of Rubus from different parts of Golestan province using 9 AFLP primer combinations. Excel and Pop Gen software were used for data analysis. Similarity matrix and cluster analysis were used by PAST software. The dendrogram was plotted based on unweighted pair group method with arithmetic average (UPGMA), using Jaccard's similarity coefficient. The results showed that eight out of nine selected primer combinations had appropriate polymorphic primer combinations. M160-E110 with 0.203 had the highest genetic variation among all used markers. All selected primer combinations found 505 position and 277 loci locations. Based on the results of the dendrogram, the studied populations were divided into two groups. Based on the results of the dendrogram, the studied populations were divided into two groups and the Caspian-Irano-Turanian populations were partially separated from the Caspian populations. According to the results of correlation analysis, the highest number of markers were related to traits of petiole length, terminal leaflet length, lateral leaf length, inflorescence length, lateral leaf width, and peduncle length. Results showed that AFLP marker was highly efficient in the separation and isolation of populations of species of Rubus species in this study.