Diversity Assessment by Molecular Barcoding and Seed Morphology in Ricinus communis L.

Abstract

Fourteen morphologically varied Ricinus communis L. seeds were collected from different localities in Egypt, El-Sudan and Saudi Arabia. Seed morphology and ITS barcoding analysis were performed to assess their diversity and phylogenetic relationship. Sequence's alignment of nrITS region from different accessions display high levels of genetic similarities. Cluster analysis could not group different accessions according to their geographical distribution. Nevertheless, the genetic barcodes are interestingly matched with the morphological features of the Ricinus seeds. In conclusion, seed morphology proved to be a valuable tool in evaluating biodiversity and phylogenetic relationship in plant species with different locations having low levels of genetic diversity such as Ricinus. The molecular assessment of morphologically varied Ricinus seeds will help breeders for better utilization of germplasm for the variety development and would support the genetic resources management and conservation of castor beans.

rapid and efficient DNA extraction method from high oily content seeds:

“…The amplified PCR products were successfully sequenced, and the obtained sequences were deposited in the NCBI database (Fig. 4) (Soliman and A., 2021). These results demonstrate that the isolated DNA was of suitable quality for PCR amplification and downstream sequencing applications.…”

“…Despite the fact that the DNA isolated using the current approach had a slightly higher A260/280 ratio, the DNA isolated was effectively employed for the downstream application, PCR. The extracted DNA was used as a template for PCR amplification of the ITS region of the rRNA encoding gene, which is commonly used for molecular identification and assessment of the molecular diversity of eukaryotic cells (Cheng et al, 2016;Yang et al, 2018;Ghareb et al, 2020;Soliman and A., 2021). PCR amplification of the extracted DNA samples yielded the expected product size of approximately 700 bp, as shown in Figure 3.…”