Phylogenetic analysis of Ancistrocladus species (Ancistrocladaceae) from Vietnam

Abstract

Genus Ancistrocladus used to be exploiting for medicinal purposes is found wildly growing across Vietnam. Identification at species level of these woody lianas for phytochemical and pharmacological research is difficult because the similarity in morphological structures exists. Therefore, molecular markers can help for studying genetic diversity as well as species determination of genus Ancistrocladus. In this study, ITS rebotypic and matK haplotypic DNA sequences of 14 Ancistrocladus samples collected throughout Vietnam and referred sequences from GeneBank were analyzed based on NJ method for clustering, alignment for homology level, point mutation accountancy, and PM test for genetic diversity of population. Polymorphism of 688bp Internal Transcribed Spacers (ITS) and 1280 bp MaturaseK (matK) markers significantly clustered the studied samples into 3 groups on NJ trees according to three geographical regions from the North to the South of Vietnam (57-70% of bootstrap values). Homology level of 99.90-99.98% in each group indicated that all 14 studied lianas belonged to A. tectorius species. High genetic diversity of the studied A. tectorius population also obtained from NJ analysis, genetic differentiation (0.846-0.913; P=0.0005-0.0142) between three groups, and their halotypic and rebotypic diversity (0.76-0.89). ITS and matK sequence analysis revealed a higher polymorphic level of ITS compared to matK. Results from NJ analysis and PM test suggested that ITS and matK could be jointly applied for phylogenetic analysis, species determination and genetic diversity estimation of Ancistrocladus genus.