ஐ.எஸ்.எஸ்.என்: 0974-276X
Devanand M. Dangre, Dnyaneshwar P. Rathod, Aniket K. Gade and Mahendra K. Rai
The genus Phoma, a common plant pathogen is taxonomically controversial. The conventional systems of classification of Phoma are functional but require considerable expertise to apply, which have resulted in a highly polyphyletic genus Phoma. The advent of molecular taxonomic techniques offered a solution for many problems, which were out of reach for classical taxonomic approaches. The method of construction of phylogenetic tree based on molecular data is widely used to determine evolutionary relationships. In the present study, we have selected 28S, 18S, and 5.8S with ITS region nucleotide sequences, actin gene sequences and beta tubulin gene sequences for the in silico analysis of the evolutionary relationship. The main objectives of the study were to assess the genetic variations and relatedness along with the investigation, identification, classification and evolutionary relationships among the eleven selected Phoma species. Confirmation of our results has been done by applying various statistical tests. The results have revealed that species have a number of discrete, highly divergent, genetic units. In contrast, some species have high sequence similarity and identity to each other, which are found as distinct classically. Our phylogenetic analysis has revealed that first speciation event is quickly followed by a second speciation event in one of the two resulting population of Phoma species.