Abstract
DNA barcoding has been proposed as a useful tool for forensic wood identification and development of a reliable DNA reference library is an essential first step. Xylaria (wood collections) are potentially enormous data repositories if DNA information could be extracted from wood specimens. In this study, 31 xylarium wood specimens and 8 leaf specimens of six important commercial species of Pterocarpus were selected to investigate the reliability of DNA barcodes for authentication at the species level and to determine the feasibility of building wood DNA barcode reference libraries from xylarium specimens. Four DNA barcodes (ITS2, matK, ndhF-rpl32 and rbcL) and their combination were tested to evaluate their discrimination ability for Pterocarpus species with both TaxonDNA and tree-based analytical methods. The results indicated that the combination barcode of matK + ndhF-rpl32 + ITS2 yielded the best discrimination for the Pterocarpus species studied. The mini-barcode ndhF-rpl32 (167–173 bps) performed well distinguishing P. santalinus from its wood anatomically inseparable species P. tinctorius. Results from this study verified not only the feasibility of building DNA barcode libraries using xylarium wood specimens, but the importance of using wood rather than leaves as the source tissue, when wood is the botanical material to be identified.
Highlights
In recent years, several consumer countries and regions have taken action to reduce the trade in forest products derived from illegally logged sources[3]
The Consortium for the Barcode of Life (CBOL) proposed a combination of both the chloroplast DNA ribulose-bisphosphate carboxylase gene and maturase K genes as the core DNA barcodes for plants
It is impossible to make a forensically valid separation of P. santalinus from P. tinctorius based on wood anatomical features
Summary
Several consumer countries and regions have taken action to reduce the trade in forest products derived from illegally logged sources[3]. Timber and timber products in the EU market These legislative actions and subsequent enforcement of these laws demonstrate the urgent global attention on forest species protection. The timber of Pterocarpus is globally valued for its beauty, wood quality, medicinal properties and even valuable bioactive compounds. Developing accurate species-level identification for Pterocarpus wood is significant for natural resource protection and global trade monitoring. Traditional wood identification relies on diagnostic anatomical features, either macroscopic or microscopic but rarely can provide a precise discrimination of wood at the species level, which limits the enforcement of CITES regulations and related laws. Traditional wood identification requires expert taxonomic and anatomical knowledge that takes years to gain To overcome such limitations, recent advances in molecular diagnostic tools for plants have the capacity to improve upon traditional methods of species identification. A number of studies relying upon DNA barcoding have verified the utility and potential for wood species identification[11,12,21,22,23]
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