Serological Approaches to the Systematics of the Glaucidiaceae

1991 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 01540579
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: 植物形態・分類学
• Research Institution: Kobe University
• Principal Investigator: TAMURA Michio Kobe Univ., Science, Professor, 理学部, 教授 (00029646)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): KOSUGE Keiko Kobe Univ., Science, Research assistant, 理学部, 助手 (50215266)
• Project Period (FY): 1989 – 1990
• Keywords: Glaucidiaceae / 11S globulin group / Immunotaxonomy / Ranunculaceae

Research Abstract

Glaucidium palmatum is indigenous to Japan and was classified into the Ranunculaceae at first. Tamura (1972) insisted that it should be raised to a unigeneric family, Glaucidiaceae, and transferred it from the Ord. Ranunculales to the Ord. Hypericales. There has been, however, no agreement so far in regard to its systematic position. Proteins are valuable taxonomic characteristics and serological analysis of the storage proteins have been used in taxonomy. We determined the amount of serological similarity as a contribution to the understanding of the natural relationships of G. palmatum.
The main storage protein of G. palmatum is 11S globulin group which is composed of large and small polypeptides which bounded to each other as dimers by a disulfide. Antisera were prepared against purified small polypeptide from G. palmatum, Aquilegia buergeriana and Chelidonium japonica and the reactivity to known concentration of small polypeptide from 118 species belonging to 52 families were detected by the western blotting method. The high reactivity to the antiserum raised against the small polypeptide from G. palmatum and also two antisera indicate close phylogenetic connection between G. palmatum, the Ranunculaceae and the Papaveraceae.