Authors : Stalin Nithaniyal and Jesubalan D
Page Nos : 30-36
Description :
The Spondias (Anacardiaceae) species has widely used in the Indian traditional system of medicine. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of chloroplast DNA barcoding markers rbcL, matK, and trnH-psbA loci to distinguish five Spondias species using computational approaches. We retrieved DNA barcode sequences from the NCBI and then analyzed the sequence composition using different parameters. Subsequent alignment and phylogenetic tree construction were performed to evaluate species resolution capabilities. The results indicated that the nucleotide variability improves the species resolution among the DNA barcodes. The rbcL and matK barcodes were less suitable for distinguishing Spondias species. In contrast, the trnH-psbA demonstrated higher species resolution in differentiating the five species S. dulcis, S. tuberosa, S. mombin, S. bahiensis, and S. pinnata. The resolving power of the trnH-psbA region makes it a more suitable DNA barcode marker for assessing genetic relatedness at the species level within Spondias. This genetic information is critical for selecting appropriate DNA barcode loci for species authentication, particularly in the market samples of S. pinnata, as well as for studying the phylogenetic relationships within the Anacardiaceae family.
