DNA barcoding of COI gene in some medicinal animals of Lacertilia

Abstract

To identify some medicinal animals of Lacertilia, in total 59 individuals belonging to 12 species 7 genera 3 families, we used the universal barcoding primers to sequence these species, compared with other homologous sequences (564 bp) obtaining from the GenBank and finally constructed phylogenetic trees using Neighbor-joining, Maximum parsimony and Bayesian inference, respectively. As a result, the mean content of G + C (46.5%) was lower than that of A + T (53.5%). As calculated by Kimera-2-parameter model, the whole individuals mean distance for interspecies and intraspecies was 35. 5% and 1.7%, respectively. The mean distance for interspecies was 21 times as much as that for intraspecies. The mean distance for intraspecies of Gekko swinhonis, Hemidactylus frenatus and G. gecko was greater than 2%, respectively. Further analyses suggested that geographical groups of the three species might be of different subSpecies, even species. Of course, incorporating morphological characters and other unlinked genetic markers in future studies will offer further insights into the divergence. On the basis of phylogenetic trees constructed by COI, our results indicated that the taxonomy of the category (family, genus, and species) by DNA barcoding is consistent with morphological characters. Therefore, DNA barcoding is a useful tool for both identification and phylogeny of medicinal animals of Lacertilia, particularly for nonprofessor identifying authentication of Chinese crude drugs of these species.