Application of deoxyribonucleic acid barcoding in Lauraceae plants

Background: This study aims to determine the candidate markers that can be used as DNA barcode in the Lauraceae family. Material and Methods: Polymerase chain reaction amplification, sequencing efficiency, differential intra- and interspecific divergences, DNA barcoding gap, and identification efficiency were used to evaluate the four different DNA sequences of psbA-trnH, matK, rbcL, and ITS2. We tested the discrimination ability of psbA-trnH in 68 plant samples belonging to 42 species from 11 distinct genera and found that the rate of successful identification with the psbA-trnH was 82.4% at the species level. However, the correct identification of matK and rbcL were only 30.9% and 25.0%, respectively, using BLAST1. The PCR amplification efficiency of the ITS2 region was poor; thus, ITS2 was not included in subsequent experiments. To verify the capacity of the identification of psbA-trnH in more samples, 175 samples belonging to 117 species from the experimental data and from the GenBank database of the Lauraceae family were tested. Results: Using the BLAST1 method, the identification efficiency were 84.0% and 92.3% at the species and genus level, respectively. Conclusion: Therefore, psbA-trnH is confirmed as a useful marker for differentiating closely related species within Lauraceae.