Molecular evidence for the hybrid origin of a new endemic species of Stylosanthes Sw. (Fabaceae) from the Mexican Yucatán Peninsula

Stylosanthes aff. calcicola is a formally undescribed tetraploid species from the Mexican Yucatán Peninsula, showing morphological similarities to the diploid species S. calcicola, but distinct in a number of characters. We used uni‐ and biparentally inherited molecular markers to infer the hybrid origin of this species in relation to known diploid species of Stylosanthes. Molecular characterization was based on length and/or DNA sequence variation of nuclear sequence‐tagged site (STS) markers, the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of nuclear rDNA and the trnL intron of chloroplast DNA (cpDNA). Stylosanthes aff. calcicola contains a distinct cpDNA haplotype and nuclear DNA fragment, with closest relationship to the diploid species S. calcicola. In contrast, the DNA sequences of two nuclear loci reveal a closer relationship to the diploid species S. angustifolia, S. hispida, S. humilis, S. leiocarpa and S. viscosa. The majority of the STS markers showed additivity of PCR fragments in S. aff. calcicola, representing the combination of two genetically different genomes. We postulate that S. aff. calcicola is a distinct species of allotetraploid origin that appears to have originated once from hybridization between two divergent genomes, of which the maternal and paternal parent are closely related to, or derived from, a member of the lineages represented by S. calcicola and S. viscosa, respectively. © 2002 The Linnean Society of London, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 140, 1–13.