title: Authentication of Chinese crude drug gecko by DNA barcoding.
abstract: Gekko gecko, an animal used as a valued traditional Chinese medicine, has been widely used for over 2000 years. Due to localized habitat destruction, the amount of G. gecko has dramatically decreased in recent years. As a result, more and more adulterants have been detected in the traditional medicine, which has resulted in a chaotic market. Therefore, a correct identification method is badly needed. In this study, we employed a new molecular method of DNA barcoding for discriminating gecko from its adulterants. Fifty-seven specimens of gecko and its adulterants were collected as test samples. The full-barcode and mini-barcode sequences of these specimens were separately amplified and sequenced separately. Together with other published barcode sequences, we detected that the intra-specific sequence diversity was far lower than the inter-specific diversity in G. gecko and its adulterants (3% compared with 35% in full-length barcode; 4% compared with 33.5% in mini-barcode). These results showed that both the full-length and mini-barcodes were effective for identifying gecko, which suggested that the DNA barcode could be an effective and powerful tool for identifying the Chinese crude drug gecko.
authors.affiliation: Chengdu Institute ofBiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu, PR China.
authors.forename: Hai-Feng
authors.initials: HF
authors.lastname: Gu
authors.forename: Yun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xia
authors.forename: Rui
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Penga
authors.forename: Bang-Hui
authors.initials: BH
authors.lastname: Mo
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Xiao-Mao
authors.initials: XM
authors.lastname: Zenga
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D058893:DNA Barcoding, Taxonomic; D004340:Drug Contamination; D008116:Lizards / Q000235:genetics*; D008516:Medicine, Chinese Traditional