Phylogeny and diversity of lamiaceae based on RPS14 gene in Pakistan

Abstract

The present research work was carried out to conduct concordance between the molecular data and the phylogenetic relationship between the selected species of Lamiaceae. We studied 34 species collected from various phytogeographical areas of Pakistan. Molecular DNA was isolated from fresh leaf specimens of the selected taxa. The rps14 gene was amplified for the isolation of DNA sequencing and the amplified products were sequenced and analyzed for phylogenetic analysis. The sequenced products were analyzed using bioinformatics tools such as MEGA7, I-TASSER (Iterative Threading Assembly Refinement) and SAVES (The Structure Analysis and Verification Server). ExPASY translate tool was used for the translation of nucleotide sequences to amino acid sequences. Phlomis cashmeriana with Origanum vulgare, and Lamium album with Lamium amplexicaul showed a close relationship in both phylogenetic trees with well-represented bootstrap (BS) values. The pairwise distance ranged from 0.013 to 0.19 with an overall mean distance of 0.068 was also observed. I-TASSER software was utilized to predict the 3D protein structures followed by stereochemical analysis. Based on the present finding it is determined that the rps14 gene would be used as a DNA barcode for the identification of plant taxa. Additionally, it is needed for the development of additional reliable molecular markers to resolve the systematics issues in the family Lamiaceae.