ANALYSIS OF THE CHLOROPLAST GENE REGION, rbcL, ISOLATED FROM Hoya parasitica (Roxb.) Wall. ex Wight PLANT

Abstract

Hoya parasitica (Roxb.) Wall. ex Wight), an epiphytic species, is an ornamental and precious medicinal plant. H. parasitica contains many biologically active pharmaceutical substances that are used to treat some human diseases. H. parasitica is morphologically similar to some species of the Hoya genus and the Asclepiadaceae family. How to identify the species and genera in the Asclepiadaceae family when the morphology, growth, and development of the plants are incomplete or the plant specimen is deformed or in powder form was the question posed for this study. In this work, the rbcL gene was isolated and sequenced, analyzed the genetic relationship of  H. parasitica was at the species and genera levels by PCR method, nucleotide sequencing, and molecular evolutionary analysis. The analysis showed that the rbcL gene has 547 nucleotides, the coverage is from 99 - 100%, and the similarity rate with the rbcL sequences of other species in the Asclepiadaceae family on GenBank ranges from 98.90 - 99.82%. The phylogenetic tree based on the rbcL sequence of species of the Hoya genus and species of the Asclepiadaceae family has been established. The rbcL gene sequence may be a candidate for chloroplast DNA barcoding for genera-level identification.