Biosystematic Study on Some Egyptian Species of Astragalus L. (Fabaceae)

Monier M Abd El-Ghani,Hala Nosier,Ahmed Moubarak,Rabab Rashad,Adel Khattab,Ashraf S A El-Sayed

doi:10.3390/agriculture11020125

Monier M Abd El-Ghani, Hala Nosier + Show 4 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture11020125

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Abstract

Astragalus L. is one of the largest angiosperm complex genera that belongs to the family Fabaceae, subfamily Papilionoideae or Faboideae under the subtribe Astragalinae of the tribe Galegeae. The current study includes the whole plant morphology, DNA barcode (ITS2), and molecular marker (SCoT). Ten taxa representing four species of Astragalus were collected from different localities in Egypt during the period from February 2018 to May 2019. Morphologically, identification and classification of collected Astragalus plants occurred by utilizing the light microscope, regarding the taxonomic revisions of the reference collected Astragalus specimens in other Egyptian Herbaria. For molecular validation, ten SCoT primers were used in this study, producing a unique banding pattern to differentiate between ten samples of Astragalus taxa which generated 212 DNA fragments with an average of 12.2 bands per 10 Astragalus samples, with 8 to 37 fragments per primer. The 212 fragments amplified were distributed as 2 monomorphic bands, 27 polymorphic without unique bands, 183 unique bands (210 Polymorphic with unique bands), and ITS2 gene sequence was showed as the optimal barcode for identifying Astragalus L. using BLAST searched on NCBI database, and afterward, analyzing the chromatogram for ITS region, 10 samples have been identified as two samples representing A. hauarensis, four samples representing A. sieberi, three samples representing A. spinosus and one sample representing A. vogelii. Based on the ITS barcode, A. hauarensis RMG1, A. hauarensis RMG2, A. sieberi RMG1, A. sieberi RMG2, A. sieberi RMG3, A. sieberi RMG4, A. spinosus RMG1, A. spinosus RMG2, A. spinosus RMG3, A. vogelii RMG were deposited into GenBank with accession # MT367587.1, MT367591.1, MT367593.1, MT367585.1, MT367586.1, MT367588.1, MT160347.1, MT367590.1, MT367589.1, MT367592.1, respectively. These results indicated the efficiency of SCoT markers and ITS2 region in identifying and determining genetic relationships between Astragalus species.

Highlights

IntroductionThe family Leguminosae (Fabaceae) is the third-largest family of angiosperms (flowering plants) after the Orchidaceae and the Asteraceae or Compositae, with 727 genera and 19,325 species [1,2], comprising annual and perennial herbs, shrubs, and trees [3]
Based on the ITS barcode, A. hauarensis RMG1, A. hauarensis RMG2, A. sieberi RMG1, A. sieberi RMG2, A. sieberi RMG3, A. sieberi RMG4, A. spinosus RMG1, A. spinosus RMG2, A. spinosus RMG3, A. vogelii RMG were deposited into GenBank with accession # MT367587.1, MT367591.1, MT367593.1, MT367585.1, MT367586.1, MT367588.1, MT160347.1, MT367590.1, MT367589.1, MT367592.1, respectively (Table 6)
Species (10 samples) of Astragalus were collected from different localities in Egypt

Summary

Introduction

The family Leguminosae (Fabaceae) is the third-largest family of angiosperms (flowering plants) after the Orchidaceae and the Asteraceae or Compositae, with 727 genera and 19,325 species [1,2], comprising annual and perennial herbs, shrubs, and trees [3] This family distributed in cold mountainous regions in Europe, Asia, and North America, has very economic importance [4] which is the main sources of gums, dyes, fuel, timber, medicinals, and pulses [5]. It includes the five largest genera: Astragalus (over 2400 species), Acacia (over 950 species), Indigofera (about 700 species), Crotalaria (about 700 species), and Mimosa (about 500 species), that comprise around a quarter of all legume species and radiated extensively in disturbed habitats. The Papilionoideae divided into tribes involving Galegeae that includes Astragalus L. [8,9]

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