Phylogenetic analysis of <i>Solanum macrocarpon</i>: The evolutionary relationships and species diversification

Abstract

Solanum macrocarpon L., commonly known as African eggplant, originates from Africa and is consumed worldwide for medicinal and culinary values. Despite its immense value, there is limited research about eggplant species diversity and evolutionary relationships. This study sought to investigate the evolutionary relationships and species diversification using molecular phylogenetic data of DNA sequences obtained from the rbcL gene of the plant species. Maximum Likelihood and Neighbour-Joining tree methods were employed to infer phylogeny using MEGA11 software. Results obtained inferred using branch lengths revealed the consensus; S. macrocarpon was slightly diverse than another identical species MH722376.1_Solanum macrocarpon; the only sample of rbcL region found on the NCBI database. The results also showed that OM965625.1_Solanum violaceum_subsp._multiflorum, OM965624.1_Solanum violaceum subsp._violaceum, and MK122638.1_Solanum_pubescens had relatively closer evolutionary relationship with S. Macrocarpon. This result provides information and resources about the evolutionary relationships and species diversity of S. macrocarpon which can be used for plant breeding, conservation biology, and biosystematics.