Systematics of the genus Carex

With about 2000 species, Carex L. (Cyperaceae) is among the five largest genera of angiosperms and one of the two largest among the monocots, but the phylogenetic relationships between the main lineages are still poorly understood. We designed a Cyperaceae-specific HybSeq bait kit using transcriptomic data of Carex siderosticta and Cyperus papyrus. We identified 554 low copy nuclear orthologous loci, targeting a total length of c. 1Mbp. Among the different techniques, we used the combination of target sequencing with genome skimming, or the HybSeq approach, to sequence these loci. In particular, we aimed to (1) test the phylogenetic hypothesis that Carex comprises five major clades, as reported to date; and (2) reconstruct evolutionary relationships among them using nuclear and plastid data.