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Abstract Evolutionary studies of plant groups which are distributed in vast geographical regions and face different ecological and environmental conditions are important as they through light on different mechanisms of local adaptation and species divergence through time. The genus Avicennia is one of these plant groups which inspire of few species show interesting geographical distribution with some degree of species-specific geographical isolations. In general, very limited molecular phylogenetic investigations have been carried out in the genus Avicennia, and therefore we conducted the present study with the following aims: 1. To estimate the species divergence time based on different nuclear and chloroplast DNA regions, separately. This will illustrate how different genetic regions evolved in this genus, 2. To identify the sequences with potential adaptive value against geographical variable by latent factor mixed models (LFMM) analysis, 3. To illustrate the phylogenetic signal of these DNA regions and their role in speciation within the genus and, 4. To introducing a new computational strategy for estimating adaptive time for the sequences. The results showed that different genetic regions may produce different species divergent time, both the nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region and chloroplast DNA sequences, contained potentially adaptive single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs).We could present a suggestive time for these adaptive sequences for the first time. In conclusion both local adaptation and independent mutations seem to have played role in Avicennia speciation and evolution.

Abstract Mangrove forests grow in coastal areas, lagoons, estuaries, and deltas and form the main vegetation in tidal and saline wetlands. Due to the mankind activities and also changes in climate, these forests face degradations and probably extinction in some areas. Avicennia marina is one of the most distributed mangrove species throughout the world. The populations of A. marina occur in a limited region in southern parts of Iran. Very few genetic and spatial analyses are available on these plants from our country. Therefore, the present study was planned to provide detailed information on Avicennia marina populations with regard to genetic diversity, gene flow versus genetic isolation, effects of spatial variables on connectivity and structuring the genetic content of trees populations and also identifying adaptive genetic regions in respond too spatial variables. We used SCoT molecular markers for genetic analyses and utilized different computational approaches for population genetics and landscapes analyses. The results of present study showed a low to moderate genetic diversity in the studied populations and presence of significant Fst values among them. Genetic fragmentation was also observed within each province studied. A limited gene flow was noticed among neighboring populations within a particular province. One population was almost completely isolated from the gene flow with other populations and had peculiar genetic content.Spatial PCA analysis revealed both significant global and local genetic structuring in the studied populations. Spatial variables like humidity, longitude and altitude were the most important spatial features affecting genetic structure in these populations.

The genus Avicennia contains of 8 species which show a great extent of morphological and genetic variability, which make taxonomy of the genus difficult. Molecular barcoding along with advancement in computational approaches may be proper methods to investigate and assess the efficiency of different molecular genetic regions in Avicennia species delineation and also produce data on species evolution and divergence. The aims of present study were to utilize multiple genetic data for the species delineation and study the phylogeny of the genus. Moreover, we developed a hypothesis on biogeography of these species with respect to barcode divergence. The results showed that both Internal transcribed spacer (ITS) and trnHG–psbA intergenic spacer (trnHG-psbA) sequences may be used in Avicennia species delineation. Barcode gap analysis and nucleotide difference of the studied taxa showed significant Fst for pair-wise species comparison and the role of nucleotide changes in Avicennia speciation.