APPLICATION OF DNA BARCODES IN IDENTIFICATION OF GINSENG SAMPLES IN
THE GENUS PANAX L.
Le Thanh Huong
1
, Nguyen Nhat Linh
1
, Bui Manh Minh
1
, Ha Hong Hanh
1
, Huynh Thi Thu Hue
1
, Nong
Van Hai
1
, Ha Van Huan
2
, Le Thi Thu Hien
1
1
Institute of Genome Research, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology
2
Vietnam National University of Forestry
SUMMARY
Identification of species based on DNA sequences (DNA barcodes) is an aid to a taxonomic classification
using morphological characteristics. DNA barcoding uses standard short genomic regions that are universally
present in target lineages and has sufficient sequence variation to identify species in the genus. A variety of
loci has been suggested as DNA barcodes for plants, including genes and non-coding regions in the nuclear and
plastid genomes such as
psbA
-trnH
, matK
, rbcL
, and ITS.
In this study, we evaluated five potential DNA
barcodes including 18S, ITS
, matK
, psbA
-trnH
, and
rbcL for their ability to distinguish between species across
our samples in the genus
Panax L. Multiple alignments with 41 GenBank sequences selected from 9 species
showed that the 18S region had the highest level of average similarity (99.87 %), followed by
rbcL,
matK
,
psbA
-trnH, and ITS regions with lower levels of average similarities (99.27 %, 98.66 %, 96.82 % and 96.50 %,
respectively). The phylogenetic trees showed that four of eleven ginseng samples were
Panax vietnamensis Ha
et Grushv., and three samples were
Panax stipuleanatus with bootstrap values of 100 %. However, sequences
Lê Thanh Hương
et al.
72
of all five screened
loci in the last four samples, which were considered as
Panax bipinnatifidus based on
morphological characteristics, were highly similar to
Panax stipuleanatus with the level of sequence similarity
reached 99.81 % - 100 %. In addition, our results showed that of
five investigated DNA regions, ITS
, and
psbA
-trnH were the most promising barcodes that could identify
P. vietnamensis Ha et Grushv. and
P.
stipuleanatus species within the genus
Panax L.
Keywords: DNA barcodes, Panax L.
genus, Panax vietnamensis Ha et Grushv.
, Panax stipuleanatus, Panax
bipinnatifidus