Table3_Increasing Taxa Sampling Provides New Insights on the Phylogenetic Relationship Between Eriobotrya and Rhaphiolepis.XLSX

Eriobotrya (Rosaceae) is an economically important genus with around 30 species. It is widely distributed in tropical and warm temperate regions of Asia, with most of its species in China, Myanmar, and Vietnam. However, Eriobotrya is often confused with the smaller genus Rhaphiolepis, and the phylogenetic relationships between the two genera are controversial. Here we present phylogenetic analyses of 38 newly generated Eriobotrya and Rhaphiolepis nrDNA together with 16 sequences of nrDNA and 28 sequences of ITS obtained from GenBank, representing 28 species of Eriobotrya and 12 species of Rhaphiolepis, in order to reconstruct highly supported relationships for the two genera. Contrary to previous research based on limited sampling, our results highlight the monophyly of Eriobotrya as well as Rhaphiolepis. The topology recovered here is consistent with key morphological synapomorphies such as the persistent sepals in Eriobotrya. Our findings show that increased sampling of taxa can provide a more robust phylogeny through reducing phylogenetic error and increasing overall phylogenetic accuracy.

Eriobotrya（蔷薇科）为一经济价值显著的属，拥有约30个物种。其分布广泛，涵盖亚洲的热带和暖温带地区，其中多数物种分布在中国、缅甸和越南。然而，Eriobotrya常与较小的属Rhaphiolepis混淆，且两属之间的系统发育关系存在争议。本研究对38个新生的Eriobotrya和Rhaphiolepis的nrDNA进行了系统发育分析，并结合来自GenBank的16条nrDNA序列和28条ITS序列，涵盖了28个Eriobotrya物种和12个Rhaphiolepis物种，旨在重建两属间得到高度支持的亲缘关系。与基于有限样本的前期研究相反，我们的研究结果突出了Eriobotrya及Rhaphiolepis的单系群特征。所恢复的系统发育树与关键形态学共衍征，如Eriobotrya中持久性萼片相一致。我们的研究结果表明，增加物种的采样可以更有效地降低系统发育误差，提高整体系统发育的准确性。