Phylogenetic Pelationships of Taro and Allied Species Based on Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphisms(RFLPs) of Chloroplast DNA

Phylogenetic relationshios among 51 accessions of taro (Colocasia esculenta(L.) Schott), C.gigantee Hook, Alocasia macrorrhiza, A.odora, Xanthosoma sagittifolium and Schismatoglottis spp. were investigated using restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs) of chloroplast DNA. The phylogenetic tree using the Neighbor Joining(NJ) method revealed that Xanthosoma and Schismatoglottis genera were distantly related to Colocasia and Alocasia genera. Among Colocasia and Alocasia accessions, C.esculenta accessions formed a single cluster. However C. gigantea accessions were related DNA among taro accessions were found to be too small to establish significant grouping of the accessions. However, four accessions of taro, which were thought to be inter-generic or inter-specific hybrids, formed an independent cluster. Based on the banding pattern of the RFLP, the plant in genus Colocasia appeared to be the maternal parent of these four accessions.