Highlights
- •A botanical species identification method is proposed.
- •We reviewed findings of 2009 CBOL International Plant Working Group.
- •Alternative loci for forensic purposes were suggested.
Abstract
The ambitious idea of using a short piece of DNA for large-scale species identification
(DNA barcoding) is already a powerful tool for scientists and the application of this
standard technique seems promising in a range of fields including forensic genetics.
While DNA barcoding enjoyed a remarkable success for animal identification through
cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) analysis, the attempts to identify a single barcode for
plants remained a vain hope for a longtime. From the beginning, the Consortium for
the Barcode of Life (CBOL) showed a lack of agreement on a core plant barcode, reflecting
the diversity of viewpoints. Different research groups advocated various markers with
divergent set of criteria until the recent publication by the CBOL–Plant Working Group.
After a four-year effort, in 2009 the International Team concluded to agree on standard
markers promoting a multilocus solution (rbcL and matK), with 70–75% of discrimination
to the species level. In 2009 our group firstly proposed the broad application of
DNA barcoding principles as a tool for identification of trace botanical evidence
through the analysis of two chloroplast loci (trnH-psbA and trnL-trnF) in plant species
belonging to local flora. Difficulties and drawbacks that were encountered included
a poor coverage of species in specific databases and the lack of authenticated reference
sequences for the selected markers. Successful preliminary results were obtained providing
an approach to progressively identify unknown plant specimens to a given taxonomic
rank, usable by any non-specialist botanist or in case of a shortage of taxonomic
expertise. Now we considered mandatory to update and to compare our previous findings
with the new selected plastid markers (matK + rbcL), taking into account forensic requirements.
Features of all the four loci (the two previously analyzed trnH-psbA + trnL-trnF and matK + rbcL) were compared singly and in multilocus solutions to assess the most suitable
combination for forensic botany.
Based on obtained results, we recommend the adoption of a two-locus combination with
rbcL + trnH-psbA plastid markers, which currently best satisfies forensic needs for botanical
species identification.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: October 15, 2014
Identification
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© 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
