A Haplotype Network Approach to Reconstruct the Phylogeny of Rosa L. (Rosaceae)

We used a plastid ndhC-trnV intergenic spacer to reconstruct the genealogy of haplotypes and phylogenetic relationships of major taxonomic groups of the genus Rosa. We analyzed the data using the statistical parsimony, maximum likelihood, and NeighborNet approaches. According to our results, the majority of species may be subdivided into three groups roughly corresponding to the taxonomic sections Pimpinellifoliae, Rosa (former Cinnamomeae) and Synstylae + Chinenses + Gallicanae + Caninae. We assess their relationships as broadly paraphyletic, since the first group appears to be ancestral to the second and the third. The fourth group distanced from these three by many mutational steps consists of R. persica (subgenus Hulthemia) sequences. We argue that R. persica together with the North American R. minutifolia and R. stellata (section Minutifoliae) probably represent the only remnants of an ancient group of roses widely distributed in the Northern Hemisphere in the Oligocene. Two major lineages of the section Caninae arose independently from different ancestors belonging to Synstylae.