NUCLEOTIDE DIVERSITY OF 15 CONIFER SPECIES IN VIETNAM’ S CENTRAL HIGHLANDS BASED ON THE ANALYSIS OF ITS, trnH-psbA, matK, trnL AND rpoC1 GENE REGIONS

Abstract

Abstract. In this study, five DNA sequences from ITS, trnH-psbA, matK, trnL and rpoC1 gene regions were used to explore relationships of 15 conifer species in Highland of Vietnam. All target gene segments have been cloned at size as predicted by the theory for all 15 species of conifers. Nucleotide-level change of 15 coniferous species in five gene regions showed from the highest to the lowest as follows: the ITS gene region (0.428), the trnH-psbA region (0.378), the trnL (0.354), the matK gene (0.192) and the rpoC1 gene (0.105). The matK gene region showed the highest level of conservation (671 nucleotides) and the trnH-psbA gene region showed the lowest (78 nucleotides). Phylogenetic tree showed that the species in the same family are formatted in a separate evolutionary branch with bootstrap values obtained from the branching nodes of each species ranging from 52 to 97 % for the ITS gene, from 50 to 100 % for trnHpsbA gene region, from 66 to 100 % for matK gene region, from 50 to 100 % for trnL gene region and from 57 to 100 % for rpoC1 gene region. Of the three gene regions of matK, trnL and rpoC1, the grouping of species in the same family showed the most obvious. This result suggests the three gene regions of matK, trnL and rpoC1 could be used as barcode for the 15 conifer species in Central Highland of Vietnam.

Phylogenetics of native conifer species in Vietnam based on two chloroplast gene regions rbcL and matK

“…Kress et al (2015) studied 296 woody species in Panama and found that the species identification rate through matK + rbcL was high, i.e., 98%. Phong et al (2018) suggested the use of three gene regions, i.e., matK, trnL and rpoC1 as a barcode for the identification of fifteen conifer species in the Central Highland of Vietnam. In our study, the core barcode matK region covered the identification of all thirty-three local conifer species (Figure 1), while the rbcL regions were weak in some species (Figure 2).…”

“…This 2-locus barcode can identify species and will contribute to the discovery of new species (Burgess et al 2011;de Vere et al 2012;Kress et al 2015). Different researchers have studied the identity, genetic variation and verified the taxonomic status of conifer species at the molecular level (de Vere et al 2012;Zheng et al 2016;Asaf et al 2018;Phong et al 2018;Kang et al 2019;). However, fewer researchers have studied conifers in Vietnam.…”