Morphological and genetic characterization of three, rare Canarian endemic Solanaceae (Solanum lidii, S. vespertilio ssp. vespertilio and S. vespertilio ssp. doramae)

In this project, we combined data from experimental plant hybridizations and toke advantage of the phylogenetic proximity between eggplant and S. lidii and S. vespertilio for performing a high-throughput genotyping using the new eggplant SPET platform on three rare, and in some cases nearly extinct, Canarian endemic Solanaceae to: (i) infer the colonization sequence of the archipelago, (ii) provide new data to test the existing hypotheses on their evolution, and (iii) assess their conservation status to suggest effective conservation strategies. This study elucidated the taxonomic status of the S. vespertilio subspecies.