The Best DNA Barcoding Marker for Classification of Berberidaceae

Nguyen Thị Phuong Trang^1,2

1. Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, Vietnam

2. Graduate University of Science and Technology, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, Vietnam

Abstract: Berberidaceae contains 17 genera and nearly 650 species, inwhich genus Berberis and genus Mahonia are sister with very closed relationship and share many similar characteristics. In the past, two genera were merged as genus Berberis. At present, Berberidaceae is at risk and prioritized for conservation, especially the species of Mahonia and Berberis. In the fact, identification for Berberidaceae based on the morphology of parts for sale (such as roots, stems, leaves) without reproductive organs (flowers and fruits) is impossible. In recent years, molecular biology techniques are being applied widely and effectively in research on evolution, classification and genetic diversity of population. Research based on DNA have highly accurate and particularly useful for closely related species which morphological observations are not sufficient to distinguish. Results from DNA analysis allows to authentic species, populations or individuals from un-intact specimens accurately and especially, it is not affected by objective factors such as the environment or human. In this study, we assessed the taxonomy ability of three commonly DNA barcoding regions used for classification including rbcL, trnH-psbA and ITS2 on 12 samples of the Berberidaceae family, in which 7 samples are genus Mahonia, 4 samples are genus Berberis and 1 sample of Epimedium was used as control samples. The results of the study will contribute to the selection of suitable DNA markers for the classification of Mahonia and Berberis samples. The gotten results demonstraded that the rbcL region showed the most obvious ability to distinguish 12 Berberidaceae species. The ITS2 sequences of Berberis julianeae and Mahonia bealei of Vietnam were submitted into GB with accession number as MT073031 and MT008067, respectively. The sequence of rbcL of Mahonia bealei also submitted to Genbank with accession number MT457415.1

Key words: Berberidaceae, ITS2, rbcL, trnH-psbA, selection of candidate DNA markers