Molecular and metabolic traits of some Egyptian species of Cassia L. and Senna Mill (Fabaceae-Caesalpinioideae)

Abstract

The genus Cassia and Senna have been classified under subfamily Caesalpinioideae of family Fabaceae (Leguminosae) of order Fabales. There is a scarce taxonomical studies of the genus Cassia and Senna inhabiting Egyptian environments, thus, the main objective of the current was to revise and authenticate the phylogenetic relationship between studied taxa of the species of the genera Cassia and Senna in Egypt using the recent tools of ITS barcoding, RAPD analysis and metabolic profiling, in comparing to the traditional taxonomical features. From the cluster analysis of the traditional 27 morphological characters, the studied taxa were categorized into two major clades with an average taxonomic distance of 4.3. The clade I include Cassia fistula, C. renigera, C. javanica L subsp. nodosa and C. roughiia that belongs to series Obolospermae, and C. grandis that belongs to series Grandes. The clade (II) includes Senna surattensis and S. alata at taxonomic level 3.6. The taxonomical description of the studied taxa was confirmed from the molecular analysis of ITS sequences and RAPD analysis. The ITS sequences of the tested plants species C. fistula L, C. grandis MD4, C. javanica subsp. nodosa MD7, C. roxburghii MD5, C. renigera MD5 were deposited at genbank with accession numbers MW367973, MZ960447, MW386305, MW326753 and MW32685, respectively. While, the ITS sequences of the S. surrattensis and S. alata were deposited into genbank accession # MD14 MW367670 and MD20 MW412635, respectively. Thus, from the molecular analysis, two clades were clearly separated into Clade I of Cassia and Clade II of Senna. The cluster I represented by C. fistula, C. renigera, C. roxburghii, and C. javanica sub nodosa, and the cluster II represented by S. alata and S. surattensis. From the PCA of RAPD, a clearly discrimination between the two Taxa was observed revealing the characteristic grouping of Cassia and Senna. The species Senna alata and Senna surattensis were grouped together, but the species of C. renigera, C. javanica, C. roxburghii and C. grandis was grouped on a distinct group. The separation of Cassia and Senna species into two clusters verify the segregation of the genus Cassia L. senso lato into two distinct genera namely Senna P. and Cassia L. The morphological, molecular traits of the studied plants were authenticated from the metabolic profiling by GC-MS analysis. Among the 23 identified metabolites, four compounds namely hexadecanoic acid, methyl ester, 9-Octadecenoic acid (Z)-ethyl ester and Vitamin E were detected with fluctuated concentrations, among C. fistula, C. grandis, C. javanica subsp. nodosa and C. roxburghii. Conclusively, the traditional morphological features, molecular barcoding using ITS sequences, RAPD analysis and metabolic traits by GC-MS analysis, authenticates the taxonomical diversity of the genus Cassia and Senna.

Distinguishing features of Lycium L. species (family Solanaceae) distributed in Egypt based on their anatomical, metabolic, molecular, and ecological characteristics

“…In our previous study on the ITS region of species of Cassia and Senna, it was found that the average size of the ITS region varied from 403 to 796 bp, while the detected nucleotide frequencies were 20.86% (A), 18.83% (T/U), 29.65% (C), and 30.67% (G). On the intergenic spacer ITS sequences, transitions were more common than transversions (Eldemerdash et al, 2022). However, older studies have proposed that the size of the ITS region in angiosperms ranges from 565 to 700 bp (Liston et al, 1996).…”

“…Metabolic profiling of the studied plants was conducted as a marker for authentication of the traditional taxonomic features and DNA barcoding analysis (Eldemerdash et al, 2022). Estimation of volatile chemical compounds by GC-MS for plant differentiation has been recognized as one of the key technological tools for metabolic profiling and taxonomic analysis that can be used to confirm traditional taxonomic features.…”

“…Evolutionary analyses were conducted in MEGA X (Kumar et al, 2018). (Janacḱovićet al, 2017;Wang et al, 2018), and in seven taxa of the subfamily Caesalpinioideae (Eldemerdash et al, 2022). GC-MS has also been used in the detection of bioactive constituents of plants, which might make it extremely useful for drug research and discovery (Janakiraman et al, 2012;Rukshana et al, 2017).…”

“…In Egypt, less attention has been paid to morphological, metabolic, and molecular analyses of Lycium species, despite the diverse pharmaceutical applications of the metabolites derived from these plants. Taxonomic analyses based on the traditional anatomical and morphological features of the plants have been revised and authenticated for various plant species, including Cestrum (Solanaceae), seven taxa of the subfamily Caesalpinioideae (El-Demerdash et al, 2021;Eldemerdash et al, 2022), and Solanum (Solanaceae) (El-Shaboury et al, 2017).…”

“…Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) has become recognized as a crucial approach for determining the various volatile compounds present in plants, particularly non-polar components, volatile essential oils, fatty acids, esters, and longchain branch hydrocarbons (Chandrasekaran et al, 2010;Asraoui et al, 2021). Phytochemical screening with GC-MS metabolic profiling of plants has recently been used as one of a set of robust taxonomic tools, as has been reported for species of Cestrum (Solanaceae), seven taxa of the subfamily Caesalpinioideae (El-Demerdash et al, 2021;Eldemerdash et al, 2022), and 11 species of Solanum (Solanaceae) (El-Shaboury et al, 2017). GC-MS has been extensively used in the identification of bioactive compounds from plants with pharmaceutical and technological bioactivity (Wang et al, 2018;Selvaraj et al, 2020).…”