Abstract
Mangroves are distributed in the transition zone between sea and land, mostly in tropical and subtropical areas. They provide important ecosystem services and are therefore economically valuable. DNA barcoding is a useful tool for species identification and phylogenetic reconstruction. To evaluate the effectiveness of DNA barcoding in identifying mangrove species, we sampled 135 individuals representing 23 species, 22 genera, and 17 families from Zhanjiang, Shenzhen, Huizhou, and Shantou in the Guangdong province, China. We tested the universality of four DNA barcodes, namely rbcL, matK, trnH-psbA, and the internal transcribed spacer of nuclear ribosomal DNA (ITS), and examined their efficacy for species identification and the phylogenetic reconstruction of mangroves. The success rates for PCR amplification of rbcL, matK, trnH-psbA, and ITS were 100%, 80.29% ± 8.48%, 99.38% ± 1.25%, and 97.18% ± 3.25%, respectively, and the rates of DNA sequencing were 100%, 75.04% ± 6.26%, 94.57% ± 5.06%, and 83.35% ± 4.05%, respectively. These results suggest that both rbcL and trnH–psbA are universal in mangrove species from the Guangdong province. The highest success rate for species identification was 84.48% ± 12.09% with trnH-psbA, followed by rbcL (82.16% ± 9.68%), ITS (66.48% ± 5.97%), and matK (65.09% ± 6.00%), which increased to 91.25% ± 9.78% with the addition of rbcL. Additionally, the identification rate of mangroves was not significantly different between rbcL + trnH-psbA and other random fragment combinations. In conclusion, rbcL and trnH-psbA were the most suitable DNA barcode fragments for species identification in mangrove plants. When the phylogenetic relationships were constructed with random fragment combinations, the optimal evolutionary tree with high supporting values (86.33% ± 4.16%) was established using the combination of matK + rbcL + trnH-psbA + ITS in mangroves. In total, the 476 newly acquired sequences in this study lay the foundation for a DNA barcode database of mangroves.
Highlights
In 2003, Hebert [1] proposed a novel DNA barcoding technology to expedite the process of species identification
We aimed to investigate the universality of DNA barcoding in the mangrove flora, which is in the transition zone between land and water, and to construct the phylogenetic trees of mangrove flora, to provide a scientific basis for the conservation of mangrove biodiversity
Our study investigated mangrove plants in the Guangdong province using DNA barcoding Our study investigated in the the Guangdong province using
Summary
In 2003, Hebert [1] proposed a novel DNA barcoding technology to expedite the process of species identification. Around 2005, the concept of DNA barcoding was introduced into botanical research [2,3]. Further research is required to compare DNA barcode. Previous studies on the DNA barcoding of plants have mainly focused on tropical and subtropical forests [12,13,14,15]. Sequences obtained from DNA barcode fragments can be used to reconstruct the phylogenetic relationships of specific biological groups, and this has become a new research hotspot in recent years [16,17,18]. This research promotes the integration of phylogenetic analysis, ecology, and barcoding technology and develops our understanding of evolutionary biology and other related disciplines [19,20,21,22]
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