DNA barcoding of some taxa of genus Acacia and their phylogenetic relationship

Abstract

The molecular identification of different taxa of genus Acacia plays a critical role to understand the evolutionary history of this important plant that has many medicinal and ecological benefits and distributed in many regions around the world (Africa, Asia, Australia and the Americas). This is the first study that used DNA barcoding (rbcL and matK) with 24 taxa of genus Acacia collected from Saudi Arabia for molecular identification, genetic resources preservation, detect genetic variations accompanied with a phylogenetic view and test the ability of DNA barcoding to segregate Senegalia and Vachellia from Acacia Mill taxa. Results showed that the GC ratio and transition/transversion bias (R) of rbcL (1.25) was higher than matK (0.95). This study resulted in the re-definition of some previously recorded species of Acacia into recently proposed genera,13 species under Vachellia and 2 species under Senegalia.The aim of the present study is to assess the ability of rbcL and matK loci to recognize Senegalia and Vachellia from other taxa of Acacia and assess the evolutionary relationship among them. This work will help to determine the position of Acacia collected from Saudi Arabia in the new generic classification and provide a clear view of the genetic relationships within the genera.