DNA bar code technology: an accurate identification study of species of camphor plants.

As a common important economic forest, Changke plants occupy an important position in forestry, light industry, medicine and other fields, most species are concentrated in the provinces and regions south of the Yangtze River, however, the grasp and identification of its species has always been a difficult problem, hindering its effective biodiversity conservation and development and utilization.
identification of these species is a crucial first step in the production, application and research of all, and the application of DNA barcode technology makes all of these challenges possible.
In order to explore and evaluate the ability of DNA bar code technology to solve this difficult problem, Liu Zhifang and Ci Xiuqin, Ph.D. students led by Li Jie, researchers of the Plant System Development and Conservation Research Group of Xishuangbna Tropical Botanical Garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, used the research group's research and accumulation in changke plant classification and systems for nearly two decades to combine DNA bar code technology with Changke morphological features, respectively, from the identification ability of bar codes, species correction ability and system evolution.
study found that the core bar codes matK and rbcl recommended by the International Barcode Organization and the supplementary bar code trnH-psbA, ITS and ITS2, in addition to the base of some groups have a good identification performance, the overall species identification capacity of camphor plants is weak; However, bar code ITS, if not considering the expansion of the sequence and sequencing difficulties, its identification ability is the best, recommended as a strong bar code of Changke plants;
This study has high reference value for the utilization of camphor plant resources in forestry, light industry and medicine, as well as for the study of the classification and systematic development of camphor plants and the protection of species resources, and also provides a data reference for the ongoing survey of camphor plants in Southeast Asia and other regions.
study was published in PLOS ONE under the title DNA Barcoding Evaluation and Accounts for Phylogenetic Relationships in Lauraceae from China.
the study was funded by the NSFC (31370245,31500454) and MOST (2011FY120200-4, 2012FY110400) funds, as well as the South East Asia Biodiversity Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Y4ZK111B01).
.