The Phylogenetic Relationships between Species of Vicia L. Based on Morphological Characteristics and Proteins Present in Seeds

Fabaceae is the second most economically important family of flowering plants all over the world. Its species are used widely as food and fodder crops because of their high protein content.

Four species of Vicia L. (vetches) were selected in this research to determine the phylogenetic relationships among Spp. by comparing the molecular characteristics, specifically the protein content, with the morphological ones. The species were Vicia sativa L. (Common Vetch), Vicia galeata Boiss. (Helmeted Vetch), Vicia palaestina Boiss. (Palestine vetch), and Vicia hybrida L. (Hairy yellow vetch). They were collected from the gardens of Tishreen University in Latakia – Syria. Two dendrograms were constructed depending on 35 differences in morphological characteristics and 30 bands of seed protein content resulting from Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate-Polyacrylamide GEL Electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) method.

The results showed that the dendrograms of both morphological and molecular characteristics were similar. Both of them consisted of three clusters. The first cluster included V.palaestina, that was the most distant genetically from the rest of the species, the second one contained V.sativa, whereas the third cluster showed a strong phylogeny between V.galeata and V.hybrida.

This type of studies is important to determine phylogenetic relationships among species and classifying them due to the lack of reported researches locally.

For our knowledge it was a first time that the total protein content of V.palaestina was studied.