Inverted repeat-lacking clade


The inverted repeat-lacking clade is a monophyletic clade of the flowering plant subfamily Faboideae that includes the majority of agriculturally-cultivated legumes. It is characterized by the loss of one of the two 25-kb inverted repeats in the plastid genome that are found in most land plants. It is consistently resolved in molecular phylogenies. The clade is predicted to have diverged from the other legume lineages 39.0±2.4 million years ago. It includes several large, temperate genera such as Astragalus L., Hedysarum L., Medicago L., Oxytropis DC., Swainsona Salisb., and Trifolium L..

Description

This clade is composed of five traditional tribes and several genera of the traditional tribe Millettieae. The name of this clade is informal and is not assumed to have any particular taxonomic rank like the names authorized by the ICBN or the ICPN. The clade is defined as:
"The most inclusive crown clade exhibiting the structural mutation in the plastid genome homologous with that found in Galega officinalis L. 1753, Glycyrrhiza lepidota Nuttall 1813, and Vicia faba L., where these taxa are extant species included in the crown clade defined by this name."