The novelty and suitability of the mitochondrial gene CO1 in DNA barcoding as a reliable identification tool in animal species are undisputed. This is attributed to its standardized sequencing segment of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase-1 gene (CO1) which has the necessary universality and variability making it a generally acceptable barcode region. CO1 is a haploid single locus that is uniparentally-inherited. Protein-coding regions are present in high-copy numbers making it an ideal barcode. The mitochondrial oxidase subunit I (COI) gene is a robust barcode with a suitable threshold for delineating animals and is not subject to drastic length variation, frequent mononucleotide repeats or microinversions. However, a low nucleotide substitution rate of plant mitochondrial genome [mtDNA] precludes the use of CO1 as a universal plant DNA barcode and makes the search for alternative barcode regions necessary. Currently, there exists no universal barcode for plants. The plastid region reveals leading candidate loci as appropriate DNA barcodes yet to be explored in biodiversity studies in Kenya. Four of these plastid regions are portions of coding genes (matK, rbcL, rpoB, and rpoC1), and three noncoding spacers (atpF-atpH, trnH-psbA, and psbK-psbL) which emerge as ideal candidate DNA loci. While dif

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