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New primer combinations are proposed for PCR amplification and sequencing of an approx. 1.5 kb long fragment from the 3’-end of Astragalus hypothetical chloroplast open reading frame 1 (ycf1). The efficiency of primers has been tested and confirmed in a wide variety of Old World taxa (including annuals, perennials with basifixed and medifixed hairs) and Oxytropis pilosa. The sequenced region showed elevated sequence variability and a consistent phylogenetic potential. Ycf1 has been traditionally treated cautiously because of the putative selective pressure acting on it but its popularity as a phylogenetic marker has started to increase recently (applied within angiosperms only in Orchideaceae and Lamiaceae so far). We, therefore, tested for the phylogenetic utility of ycf1 in Astragalus employing Maximum Parsimony analysis of the 19 Astragalus and one Oxytropis sequences generated in this study. The resulted tree topology reflected several previously revealed relationships based on ITS sequences of the nuclear ribosomal DNA region or affinities expected from morphology based taxonomic treatments. Taxa of sections Caprini, Dissitiflori and Incani formed monophylous entities, whereas the position of taxa belonging to sections Craccina and Hypoglottidei revealed the paraphyletic status of these sections. The resulted close relationship between A. cicer (sect. Hypoglottidei) and A. onobrychis (sect. Onobrychoidei) warrants further investigations on the re-circumscription of these sections. We propose using ycf1 as a phylogenetic marker in Astragalus that – especially in combination with other chloroplast markers – might be a useful tool for monophyly testing and sectional delimitation.

Keywords: Astragalus, ycf1, chloroplast DNA phylogeny