Brassicales phylogeny inferred from 72 plastid genes: a reanalysis of the phylogenetic localization of two paleopolyploid events and origin of novel chemical defenses

PREMISE OF THE STUDY - Previous phylogenetic studies employing molecular markers have yielded various insights into the evolutionary history across Brassicales, but many relationships between families remain poorly supported or unresolved. A recent phylotranscriptomic approach utilizing 1155 nuclear markers obtained robust estimates for relationships among 14 of 17 families. Here we report a complete family‐level phylogeny estimated using the plastid genome.

METHODS - We conducted phylogenetic analyses on a concatenated data set comprising 44,926 bp from 72 plastid genes for species distributed across all 17 families. Our analysis includes three additional families, Tovariaceae, Salvadoraceae, and Setchellanthaceae, that were omitted in the previous phylotranscriptomic study.

KEY RESULTS - Our phylogenetic analyses obtained fully resolved and strongly supported estimates for all nodes across Brassicales. Importantly, these findings are congruent with the topology reported in the p...