STUDY OF GENETIC DIVERSITY AND PROVENANCE OF FOREST TREES BY USING CHLOROPLAST GENE SEQUENCE ANALYSIS

Abstract

The infonnation on level of genetic diversity and origin is very important for the conservation of gene source and varietal production, selection and development of the plant species in general and forest trees in particular. The use of molecular markers, especially, DNA markers in the study of genetic diversity has overcome the limitations of morphology and enzyme markers in term of number of investigated loci, low rate of variation, and the expression at protein leveL As chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) is highly conserved, the chloroplast gene markers are widely using in the studies of evolution, origin and phylogeny of plant. In this paper, we present the results on the use of chloroplast gene sequences in the study of genetic diversity and origin of some forest trees, including endangered species. The obtained results showed that, for the Dipterocarp species, primer pairs trnD-trnT, trnH-trnK and psbC-trnS amplified cpONA sequences between respective genes are the most suitable. Restriction enzyme TaqI proved to be the most effective for cutting the PCR products of investigated primer pairs. It's possible to recognize some species by the use of suitable chloroplast primers and restriction enzymes with primer pairs psbC-trnS and enzyme HaeIII, the Dipterocarpus alarus Roxb can be recognized and the Diplerocarpus costafus Gaertn can be recognized by using primer pairs IrnH-frnK and enzyme Rsal. The investigated results also indicated that the Hopea cordata collected from three different locations have the same origin. For the Afelaleuca cajuputi, primer pairs frnH-frnK and frnM-rbcL and the enzyme Hinfl gave higher polymorphic level. The results of this study indicated that the chloroplast markers are an effective tool for the study of genetic diversity and origin of forest tree species and the study of the suitable chloroplast sequences for each species are very important