Philippe Küpfer

• University of Neuchâtel

The alpine plant Bupleurum ranunculoides L. s.l. (Apiaceae) is widely distributed in the European mountains, from the Cantabric range to the Carpathians, passing through the Pyrenees and the Alps. Both the dispersal and the survival of B. ranunculoides are strongly challenged by adequate habitats composed of calcareous substrates, which might have...

Cytotaxonomical and chorological researches on three groups of species lead us to a better understanding of the evolutionary processes which came off the differenciation of several south-west europaean moutain plant species. Two relative species of the genus Silene, e. g. Silene boryi Boiss. and S. vallesia L., shows a very similar ecological and m...

Castanea Mill. (chestnut) is a multipurpose deciduous tree and member of the family Fagaceae, widely distributed throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. The evaluation of the genetic diversity of chestnut species is crucial for the effective conservation of this economically and ecologically valuable tree. In this study, we applied 4 DNA marker...

Balsaminaceae consists of two genera, Hydrocera with only one species H. triflora and Impatiens with over 900 species. The chromosome number of H. triflora was consistently reported as 2n=16 or n=8. The somatic chromosome numbers vary greatly from 2n=6 to 2n=66 in Impatiens. In order to provide more complete information to understand the chromosoma...

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) aims at the conservation of all three levels of biodiversity, that is, ecosystems, species and genes. Genetic diversity represents evolutionary potential and is important for ecosystem functioning. Unfortunately, genetic diversity in natural populations is hardly considered in conservation strategies bec...

A survey of all known chromosome counts of gentian tribe Helieae are presented including new reports for ten species. Amongst the novelties are four genera of the Gentianaceae that are reported for the first time, Calolisianthus and Helia (both Helieae), and Schultesia and Zygostigma (both Chironieae). In the Helieae, our results reinforce the hypo...

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) aims at the conservation of all three levels of biodiversity, that is, ecosystems, species and genes. Genetic diversity represents evolutionary potential and is important for ecosystem functioning. Unfortunately, genetic diversity in natural populations is hardly considered in conservation strategies bec...

The subtribe Gentianinae comprises ca. 425 species, most of them within the well-studied genus Gentiana and mainly distributed over the Eurasian continent. Phylogenetic relationships between Gentiana and its closest relatives, the climbing gentians (Crawfurdia, Tripterospermum) and the new genus Metagentiana, remain unclear. All three genera were r...

The subtribe Gentianinae comprises ca. 425 species, most of them within the well‐studied genus Gentiana and mainly distributed over the Eurasian continent. Phylogenetic relationships between Gentiana and its closest relatives, the climbing gentians (Crawfurdia, Tripterospermum) and the new genus Metagentiana, remain unclear. All three genera were r...

Background and aims Recent studies have adopted a broad definition of Sapindaceae that includes taxa traditionally placed in Aceraceae and Hippocastanaceae, achieving monophyly but yielding a family difficult to characterize and for which no obvious morphological synapomorphy exists. This expanded circumscription was necessitated by the finding tha...

The heat-and odour-producing genus Arum (Araceae) has interested scientists for centuries. This long-term interest has allowed a deep knowledge of some complex processes, such as the physiology and dynamics of its characteristic lure-and-trap pollination system, to be built up. However, mainly because of its large distributional range and high degr...

The alpine white-flowered buttercup, Ranunculus kuepferi Greuter & Burdet, is a polyploid complex with diploids endemic to the southwestern Alps and polyploids – which have been previously described as apomictic – widespread throughout European mountains. Due to the polymorphic status of both its ploidy level and its reproductive mode, R. kuepferi...

Within the Gentianaceae-Exaceae, the most species-rich genus Sebaea has received very little attention in terms of phylogenetic or karyological investigations. As a result, the exact number of species remains vague and the relationships with the other members of the Exaceae poorly understood. In this paper, we provide the first comprehensive phylog...

Climatic history and ecology are considered the most important factors moulding the spatial pattern of genetic diversity. With the advent of molecular markers, species’ historical fates have been widely explored. However, it has remained speculative what role ecological factors have played in shaping spatial genetic structures within species. With...

Malagasy Dracaena (Ruscaceae) are divided into four species and 14 varieties, all of them showing a high level of morphological diversity and a putatively artefactual circumscription. In order to reveal relationships between those entangled entities, a span of Malagasy Dracaena were sampled and analyzed using cpDNA sequences and AFLP. The cpDNA ana...

The economically important soapberry family (Sapindaceae) comprises about 1900 species mainly found in the tropical regions of the world, with only a few genera being restricted to temperate areas. The infrafamilial classification of the Sapindaceae and its relationships to the closely related Aceraceae and Hippocastanaceae -- which have now been i...

Unlike other tribes of Gentianaceae, Exaceae have so far received little attention regarding their karyological evolution. Indeed, only 35 chromosome number counts (19 species) have been referenced to date, representing only a negligible fraction of the tribal diversity. In this paper, we performed an intensive chromosome count on material collecte...

Aim The aim of this study was to test hypotheses regarding some of the main phylogeographical patterns proposed for European plants, in particular the locations of glacial refugia, the post‐glacial colonization routes, and genetic affinities between southern (alpine) and northern (boreal) populations. Location The mountains of Europe (Alps, Balkans...

The nucleotide sequences of the internal transcribed spacers (ITS) of nuclear ribosomal DNA of 24 representative species of sect. Chondrophyllae s.l. have been determined and analysed phylogenetically, together with some species of other sections of the genus Gentiana. The ITS sequences strongly support the monophyly of the sect. Chondrophyllae s.l...

Natural hybridization and backcrossing between Aegilops cylindrica and Triticum aestivum can lead to introgression of wheat DNA into the wild species. Hybrids between Ae. cylindrica and wheat lines bearing herbicide resistance (bar), reporter (gus), fungal disease resistance (kp4), and increased insect tolerance (gna) transgenes were produced by po...

Balsaminaceae are a morphologically diverse family with ca. 1,000 representatives that are mainly distributed in the Old World tropics and subtropics. To understand the relationships of its members, we obtained chloroplast atpB-rbcL sequences from 86 species of Balsaminaceae and five outgroups. Phylogenetic reconstructions using parsimony and Bayes...

Recent field investigations have shown that three Arum species occur in Istria (Croatia): A. cylindraceum, A. italicum, and A. maculatum. They differ from each other mainly on the shape of tuber, ratio of peduncle and petiole length, ratio of spathe tube to spathe limb, and length and shape of the spadix. All of three species have different chromos...

Seeds of 38 species of Impatiens mostly from south-western China were observed by scanning electron microscopy. High diversity was found in seedcoat micromorphology. Based on the structure and ornamentation of epidermal cells of the seedcoat, particularly the pattern of the arrangement of the cells and the degree of elevation of the anticlinal cell...

Disjunctive distributions across paleotropical regions in the Indian Ocean Basin (IOB) often invoke dispersal/vicariance debates. Exacum (Gentianaceae, tribe Exaceae) species are spread around the IOB, in Africa, Madagascar, Socotra, the Arabian peninsula, Sri Lanka, India, the Himalayas, mainland Southeast Asia including southern China and Malaysi...

The balsaminoid Ericales, namely Balsaminaceae, Marcgraviaceae, Tetrameristaceae, and Pellicieraceae have been confidently placed at the base of Ericales, but the relations among these families have been resolved differently in recent analyses. Sister to this basal group is a large polytomy comprising all other families of Ericales, which is associ...

Sequences of the internal transcribed spacers (ITS) of nuclear ribosomal DNA were acquired for 112 species of Balsaminaceae worldwide and five species of its closest relatives Marcgraviaceae and Tetrameristaceae. Phylogenetic analyses applying parsimony and distance estimates confirmed the monophyly of Balsaminaceae and suggest the monophyly of Imp...

Pandanaceae are an ancient family of dioecious monocots dating from the early to mid-Cretaceous, and comprising three extant genera Sararanga, Freycinetia and Pandanus. We present a cladistic analysis of Pandanaceae based on DNA sequences of four cpDNA fragments (the trnL intron and three intergenic spacers, trnL-F, trnS-ycf9 and atpB-rbcL) in orde...

Both chloroplast trnL (UAA) intron and nuclear ribosomal ITS sequences highly confirmed the monophyly of the tribes of the Gentianaceae defined by the recent classification, and revealed the tribe Exaceae as a basal clade just next to the basal-most lineage, the tribe Saccifolieae. Within the tribe Exaceae, Sebaea (except Sebaea madagascariensis) a...

The internal transcribed spacers (ITS1 and ITS2) of nuclear ribosomal DNA were amplified and sequenced from 19 samples representing all species of the genus Mercurialis and two outgroup species, Ricinus communis and Acalypha hispida. The length of ITS1 in the ingroups ranged from 223 to 246 bp and ITS2 from 210 to 218 bp. Sequence divergence betwee...

 The genus Swertia L., as currently defined, is polymorphic and mainly distributed in temperate regions of the northern hemisphere. Phylogenetic relationships between Swertia and the other genera of the Swertiinae sensu Struwe et al. (unpubl. data) are discussed based on cladistic analyses of DNA sequence data. The sequences used for this purpose i...

Genetic diversity within and among six subpopulations of Larix decidua Mill, from two altitudinal transects of Swiss Alps was investigated using 6 enzyme systems coding for 8 loci. Globally, the mean proportion of polymorphic loci was 22.9%, the average number of alleles per locus was 1.3, and the mean expected heterozygosity was 0.095. Only 5.8% o...

Some species of phytogeographical interest for Basilicata are recorded. Among these: Anthriscus nitida, Herniaria glabra subsp. nebrodensis and Kernera saxatilis subsp. saxatilis are new for the southern Apennines; Myriophyllum spicatum and Potentilla crantzii subsp. crantzii are new for the Basilicata region.

Chromosome numbers were recorded for 63 populations of 34 species belonging to the genusGentiana from the high altitude regions of western China. Counts for 22 species were reported for the first time and new numbers were found forG. heleonastes (2n = 36),G. prattii (2n = 20) andG. pseudoaquatica (2n = 40). Incorporating previous data, a complete s...

The role of polyploidy in the evolution of plants is reviewed. The types of polyploids and their origins are defined. Instant consequences of polyploidy are described, as well as the relationships between polyploidy and distribution, ecology and breeding system. The conditions for the establishment of polyploids in a diploid population are discusse...

The nucleotide sequences of the internal transcribed spacers (ITS) of nuclear ribosomal DNA of 24 representative species of sect. Chondrophyllae s.l. have been determined and analysed phylogenetically, together with some species of other sections of the genus Gentiana. The ITS sequences strongly support the monophyly of the sect. Chondrophyllae s.l...

Nineteen populations of fifteen species ofGentiana sect.Chondrophyllae from China were observed cytologically.Gentiana alsinoides, G. anisostemon, G. asterocalyx, G. exigua, G. heterostemon, G. intricata, G. praticola, G. pseudoaquatica, G. spathulifolia, andG. subintricata all had the same chromosome number of 2n = 20 (or n = 10), whereasG. piasez...

Sequence divergence was estimated within noncoding sequences of both chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) trnL (UAA) intron and nuclear ribosomal DNA (nrDNA) internal transcribed spacer sequences (ITS1 and ITS2) for 10 species of the genus Gentiana L. (Gentianaceae). Comparisons of evolutionary rates among these sequences (cpDNA versus nrDNA, ITS1 versus ITS2)...

The internal transcribed spacers (ITSs) of nuclear ribosomal DNA have been sequenced for 20 species of Gentiana. By incorporating previously released sequence data of eight species, phylogenetic analyses using Fitch parsimony and character-state weighted parsimony were carried out. The length of ITS1 in the taxa surveyed ranged from 223 to 238 bp a...

The internal transcribed spacers (ITSs) of nuclear ribosomal DNA have been sequenced for 20 species of Gentiana. By incorporating previously released sequence data of eight species, phylogenelic analyses using Fitch parsimony and character-state weighted parsimony were carried out. The length of ITS 1 in the taxa surveyed ranged from 223 to 238 bp...

The internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions of 18S–25S nuclear ribosomal DNA from representatives of 23 species of the subtribeGentianinae and one outgroup species (Centaurium capitatum) were analyzed by polymerase chain reaction amplification and direct DNA sequencing. Within the taxa analyzed, the length of the ITS1 region varied from 221 to 23...

Chromosome numbers were documented for 11 taxa representing 5 genera of Gentianaceae from China. Gentianopsis lutea, G. paludosa var. paludosa and var. ovato-deltoidea were diploid with 2n=26; G. grandis was tetraploid with 2n=52 (n=26); while both diploid (2n=26, n=13) and tetraploid (2n=52) cytotypes were found for G. barbata. The tetraploid numb...