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Steroids, taxonomic markers?

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Abstract

The use of steroids as taxonomic markers of the angiosperms was evaluated. To this end evolutionary advancement parameters, based on oxidation state and skeletal specialization of each steroid were calculated. The averages of these values for the steroids registered for a particular plant group were assumed to represent the evolutionary parameters of the plant group. Positive correlations of these chemical parameters and of morphological Sporne indices, as well as of herbacity indices, were observed to constitute a general trend. Furthermore, steroids are not uniformly distributed within a morphologically homogeneous plant group, but are replacement characters. Thus, in spite of their functional importance, steroids can be considered, analogously to many other classes of secondary metabolites, for chemosystematic purposes.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Química, Universidade de São Paulo, 05508, São Paulo, SP, Brasil

    Maria Renata de M. B. Borin & Otto R. Gottlieb

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  1. Maria Renata de M. B. Borin
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  2. Otto R. Gottlieb
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Part 35 in the series “Plant chemosystematics and phylogeny”. For Part 34 seeKaplan & al. (1991). Based in part on the MSc. — Thesis presented byBorin (1988) to Universidade de São Paulo. Dedicated to Univ.-Prof. DrF. Ehrendorfer on the occasion of his 65th birthday.

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Borin, M.R.d.M.B., Gottlieb, O.R. Steroids, taxonomic markers?. Pl Syst Evol 184, 41–76 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00937778

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00937778

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