DNA Barcoding of Invasive Terrestrial Plant Species in India

Area of Science:

• Botany
• Molecular Biology
• Ecology

Background:

• Invasive plants threaten biodiversity and ecosystem health.
• Morphological identification is time-consuming and requires expertise.
• DNA barcoding offers a potential solution for rapid species identification.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the efficacy of four DNA markers (rbcL, matK, rbcL+matK, psbA-trnH) for identifying invasive plant species in India.
• To compare the discriminatory power of individual and combined markers.
• To establish a robust DNA barcoding method for invasive flora.

Main Methods:

• DNA extraction and sequencing of rbcL, matK, and psbA-trnH loci from 37 invasive and 97 native Indian plant species.
• Analysis of sequence divergence using Kimura 2-parameter (K2P) model.
• Phylogenetic analyses using Neighbor-Joining (NJ) and Maximum-Parsimony methods.

Main Results:

• The combined rbcL+matK locus demonstrated the highest resolution and accuracy (>90% genus identification).
• MatK alone performed better than rbcL but failed to resolve the genus Dinebra.
• The psbA-trnH marker had limited utility; Asteraceae and Poaceae families were polyphyletic with all markers.

Conclusions:

• The dual-locus combination of rbcL+matK is the most suitable DNA barcode for identifying invasive plant species in India.
• This approach enhances identification accuracy and contributes valuable data to global invasive species databases.
• Future research should explore additional markers to further improve species-level discrimination.