Phylogeny of the Athyriaceae: evidence from chloroplast trnL-F region sequences

The Athyriaceae are a large and complex family. The phylogenetic relationships among the genera in the family are not well understood, and the systematic positions of Neoathyrium crenulatoserrulatum , Kuniwatsukia , Pseudocystopteris , Diplaziopsis , Allantodia and Callipteris have long been controversial. Nucleotide sequences of the chloroplast trn L-F region from 34 species of the Athyriaceae and three species in two other families were analyzed to gain insights into the intergeneric relationships. The phylogenetic relationships of the genera were inferred using the neighbor-joining and maximum parsimony methods, and both methods produced largely congruent trees. These trees reveal that: (1) the results of the trn L-F region sequence analyses and those of the rbc L gene sequence analyses are largely congruent; (2) Neoathyrium crenulatoserrulatum (Makino.) Ching Z. R. Wang should be transferred to Cornopteris Nakai; (3) Pseudocystopteris Ching and Kuniwatsukia Pic. Serm. should be placed in Athyrium Roth; (4) Diplaziopsis C. Chr. belongs to the Diplazium clade; (5) Allantodia R. Br. emend. Ching, Callipteris Bory should be included in Diplazium Sw.; (6) Athyriaceae may better be divided into five subfamilies: Cystopterioideae, Athyrioideae, Deparioideae, Diplazioideae and Rhachidosorioideae.