Plant molecular systematics is a discipline that uses molecular data to unravel the evolutionary relationships among plant species. This book serves as an introduction to the core principles of plant molecular systematics, presenting the fundamentals in a concise and coherent way. It equips students with both foundational knowledge and insights from the latest research. The book details how molecular data can be leveraged to build phylogenetic trees, which depict evolutionary relationships among plant species.

Structured into 18 chapters, the book explores various aspects of molecular systematics in an engaging and stimulating manner. Each chapter includes summaries and relevant illustrations to reinforce key concepts. To further support learning, the book features a glossary of essential scientific terms, suggested further reading, and a dedicated section on current challenges and future directions in the field.

Key molecular techniques and their applications in plant systematics are comprehensively covered, including the following:

• Nucleic acids, genes, and genomes
• Molecular markers
• DNA isolation and amplification
• Next-generation sequencing
• Phylogenetic tree construction
• Molecular clocks
• DNA barcoding

This book is intended for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students in plant sciences, especially those interested in plant taxonomy. It provides a comprehensive resource for anyone pursuing studies in plant molecular systematics.

Professor Arun Kumar Pandey (born 1953), received his school to University education at Lucknow. He obtained M.Sc. Degree from the University of Lucknow (1973) and Ph.D. from the National Botanical Research Institute (1978). He joined the Department of Botany, TM Bhagalpur University in 1983 and rose to the position of Professor in 1995. He has taught taxonomy, reproductive biology and plant genetic resources and mentored the doctoral work of 22 scholars. He was selected as Professor of Botany at the University of Delhi in August 2008. Thus he has more than three decades of teaching and research experience Prof. Pandey has carried out extensive research on the systematics and reproductive biology of families such as Asteraceae, Cucurbitaceae, Fabaceae and Araliaceae. He has done taxonomic revision of Tricholepis, Inula (Asteraceae), Trichosanthes (Cucurbitaceae) and Aralia and Panax (Araliaceae) of India. He has also published papers on molecular phylogeny of Aralia-Panax complex, Crotalaria, Indigofera and a checklist of Indian Cucurbitaceae. Ethnobotanical studies done by him have helped in recording numerous important and useful traditional knowledge from among the different tribal groups in Santhal Paragana (Jharkhand), Similipal (Odisha) and Chothe tribe (Manipur). Prof. Pandey was Post-doctoral Fellow in the Ohio State University, USA during 1987-88. In 1994, he visited Herbarium, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, England. He was awarded Bass Fellowship of the Field Museum, Chicago, USA in 2002 and 2004 where he worked on molecular taxonomy of the ginseng family. He was Visiting Professor at the University of Vienna, Austria (2006) and INSA visiting Fellow at the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience & Biotechnology (2008). In 2010, he was invited by the Chinese Academy of Sciences to participate in an International Workshop on "Flora of Pan-Himalayas" held in Beijing. In 2012, he visited University of Munich, Germany under Indian National Science Academy Bilateral Exchange Programme. He has delivered invited lectures at the University of Munich (Germany) and Vienna (Austria). Prof. Pandey is the recipient of Panchanan Maheshwari Medal and YS Murty Medal of the Indian Botanical Society and VV Sivarajan medal of the Indian Association for Angiosperm Taxonomy. He has delivered Parukutty Barua Memorial Lecture (Gauhati) in 2006 and G. Panigrahi Memorial lecture (2009) at Kuvempu University, Karnataka. Dr. Pandey is President of East-Himalayan Society for Spermatophyte Taxonomy (EHSST) and Past-President of the Indian Association for Angiosperm Taxonomy (IAAT). He was Recorder of the Plant Sciences Section of Indian Science Congress Association (2012-2014) and immediate past President of the Plant Sciences Section of the Indian Science Congress Association. He is Secretary (Outstation) of the Indian Association for Angiosperm Taxonomy. He is receipient of the 2015 P. Maheshwari medal of the Indian Botanical Society.

This book highlights the efficacy of molecular data in inferring phylogeny. References throughout the book illuminate the taxonomic terminology and literature. The book includes a range of topics beginning from gene to phylogenomics and provides an up-to-date information about plant molecular systematics.

Introduction. Nucleic Acids: DNA. Gene and Genomes. Molecular Markers: Chloroplast Genome. Molecular Markers: Nuclear Genome. Molecular Markers: Mitochondrial Genome. Molecular Markers: Simple Sequence Repeats (SSRs). Molecular Markers: Retrotransposons. Isolation of DNA. Polymerase Chain Reaction. Genome/ DNA Sequencing. Next Generation Sequencing. Whole Genome Sequencing. Sequence Alignment. Phylogenetic Trees. Phylogenetic Tree Reconstruction Methods. DNA Barcoding. Molecular Cytogenetics.