Molecular phylogeny of Southeast Asian Dipterocarps belonging to tribe Dipterocarpeae (family Dipterocarpaceae) based on non-coding sequence data of chloroplast and nuclear DNA

Phylogeny is related to the explanation of evolutionary relationships between species or populations based on morphological characters and molecular data. The total of 48 taxa of 8 genera of family Dipterocarpaceae originated from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam were investigated using sequence data of three regions trnL-F, petD and ITS. This study mainly focused on the resolution of intra- and interspecific relationships within tribe Dipterocarpeae belongs to subfamily Dipterocarpoideae, the largest and most species-rich subfamily distributed in Southeast Asia, and has eight genera: Anisoptera, Cotylelobium, Dipterocarpus, Stemonoporus, Upuna, Vateria, Vateriopsis and Vatica. Three combined data sets were analyzed using the neighbor-joining and maximum parsimony methods with Monotes kerstingii as outgroup. The obtained phylogenetic trees show a consistent topology revealing two major clades within tribe Dipterocarpeae including (1) Anisoptera, Cotylelobium, Stemonoporus, Upuna, Vateria, Vateriopsis and Vatica and (2) Dipterocarpus. This study also showed molecular differentiation between two closely related species Dipterocarpus cf. condorensis Pierre and Dipterocarpus caudatus Foxw. based on the aligned sequences and phylogenetic affinity. Sequence information can be useful for the investigation of the origin and biogeography of dipterocarps.