DNA barcoding in medicinal plants: Testing the potential of a proposed barcoding marker for identification of Uncaria species from China

In this study, we tested the feasibility of five candidate DNA barcodes (nrITS, nrITS2, matk, rbcL and trnH-psbA) for identifying Uncaria species. We collected a total of 54 specimens of 10 Uncaria species across its distributional range. BLAST, barcoding gaps, tree-based methods and TAXONDNA analysis were used to investigate the molecular identification capability of the candidate DNA barcodes. The results showed that the ITS2 is most suitable as a candidate DNA barcode for identification of medicinal plants of the genus Uncaria.

Source: Biochemical Systematics and Ecology - April 24, 2015 Category: Biochemistry Source Type: research