Abstract
Ocimum tenuiflorum L., holy basil “Tulsi”, is an important medicinal plant that is being grown and traditionally revered throughout Indian Subcontinent for thousands of years; however, DNA sequence-based genetic diversity of this aromatic herb is not yet known. In this report, we present our studies on the phylogeography of this species using trnL-trnF intergenic spacer of plastid genome as the DNA barcode for isolates from Indian subcontinent. Our pairwise distance analyses indicated that genetic heterogeneity of isolates remained quite low, with overall mean nucleotide p-distance of 5 × 10−4. However, our sensitive phylogenetic analysis using maximum likelihood framework was able to reveal subtle intraspecific molecular evolution of this species within the subcontinent. All isolates except that from North-Central India formed a distinct phylogenetic clade, notwithstanding low bootstrap support and collapse of the clade in Bayesian Inference. North-Central isolates occupied more basal position compared to other isolates, which is suggestive of its evolutionarily primitive status. Indian isolates formed a monophyletic and well-supported clade within O. tenuiflorum clade, which indicates a distinct haplotype. Given the vast geographical area of more than 3 million km2 encompassing many exclusive biogeographical and ecological zones, relatively low rate of evolution of this herb at this locus in India is particularly interesting.
Highlights
Ocimum tenuiflorum L., known as “Tulsi,” is an aromatic plant in the basil family Lamiaceae, which is native throughout the eastern world tropics
A total of thirteen sequences were generated for trnL-trnF spacer region of O. tenuiflorum Indian Isolates, all of which showed homology with the only available sequence of this species at this locus in Genbank, Accession Number AJ505473 [1]
Our principal finding is that rate of molecular evolution at plastid DNA trnL-trnF spacer locus for O. tenuiflorum in India is very low but at detectable levels
Summary
Ocimum tenuiflorum L. (holy basil), known as “Tulsi,” is an aromatic plant in the basil family Lamiaceae (tribe ocimeae), which is native throughout the eastern world tropics. (holy basil), known as “Tulsi,” is an aromatic plant in the basil family Lamiaceae (tribe ocimeae), which is native throughout the eastern world tropics. It is an erect, much branched subshrub, 30–60 cm tall with hairy stems and simple, opposite, green leaves that are strongly scented. Tulsi has been used as a medicinal plant for thousands of years in Indian traditional medicine Ayurveda and its allied herbalism disciplines for its diverse healing properties. The plant is considered sacred and is worshipped in a sanctorum of its own in traditional Hindu temples, sacred groves, and households throughout the subcontinent and its taxonomical synonym
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