Molecular identification of original plants of fritillariae cirrhosae bulbus, a tradtional chinese medicine (TCM) using plant DNA barcoding

Abstract

Background: DNA barcoding is a widely used tool that enables rapid and accurate identification of species based on standardized DNA regions. Materials and Methods: In this study, potential DNA barcodes, namely three plastid regions (rbcL, trnH-psbA and matK) and one nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) were adopted for species identification of original plants of Fritillariae Cirrhosae Bulbus. Results: The rbcL and trnH-psbA regions showed better success rate of PCR amplification and DNA sequencing, as well as superior discriminatory ability. On the contrary, ITS region did not possess effective genetic variation and matK was faced with low success rate of sequencing. Combination of multi-loci sequences could improve identification ability of DNA barcoding. The trnH-psbA + rbcL could discriminate 25% - 100% species based on the Blast, Tree-Building and Distance methods. Conclusion: The potential DNA barcodes could not completely solving species identification of botanic origins of Fritillariae Cirrhosae Bulbus. In future, we should pay more attention to super-barcoding or specific barcode that enhance ability to discriminate the closely related plants.