botanyone
Phylogenetic analyses of Centaureinae support two main phases of radiation, leading to two major groups of genera of different ages. Quesada del Bosque et al. study 38 species in ten genera and find that eight subfamilies of the HinfI satellite DNA family were present in the common ancestor of Centaureinae and that each spread differentially in different genera during the two main phases of radiation, following the library model of satellite DNA evolution. The differential speciation pathways gave rise to differential patterns of sequence evolution in different lineages, and thus the evolutionary history of each Centaureinae group is reflected in HinfI satellite DNA evolution. The results reinforce the value of satellite-DNA sequences as evolutionary markers.
