Incorporating trnH-psbA to the core DNA barcodes improves significantly species discrimination within southern African Combretaceae.
Recent studies indicate that the discriminatory power of the core DNA barcodes (rbcLa + matK) for land plants may have been overestimated since their performance have been tested only on few closely related species. In this study we focused mainly on how the addition of complementary barcodes (nrITS and trnH-psbA) to the core barcodes will affect the performance of the core barcodes in discriminating closely related species from family to section levels. In general, we found that the core barcodes performed poorly compared to the various combinations tested. Using multiple criteria, we finally advocated for the use of the core + trnH-psbA as potential DNA barcode for the family Combretaceae at least in southern Africa. Our results also indicate that the success of DNA barcoding in discriminating closely related species may be related to evolutionary and possibly the biogeographic histories of the taxonomic group tested.
African Centre for DNA Barcoding, Department of Botany & Plant Biotechnology, University of Johannesburg, PO Box 524, South Africa.
Jephris
J
Gere
African Centre for DNA Barcoding, Department of Botany & Plant Biotechnology, University of Johannesburg, PO Box 524, South Africa ; C4 EcoSolutions, 9 Mohr Road Tokai, Cape Town, South Africa 7945.
Kowiyou
K
Yessoufou
African Centre for DNA Barcoding, Department of Botany & Plant Biotechnology, University of Johannesburg, PO Box 524, South Africa.
Barnabas H
BH
Daru
African Centre for DNA Barcoding, Department of Botany & Plant Biotechnology, University of Johannesburg, PO Box 524, South Africa.
Ledile T
LT
Mankga
African Centre for DNA Barcoding, Department of Botany & Plant Biotechnology, University of Johannesburg, PO Box 524, South Africa.
Olivier
O
Maurin
African Centre for DNA Barcoding, Department of Botany & Plant Biotechnology, University of Johannesburg, PO Box 524, South Africa.
Michelle
M
van der Bank
Combretaceae; DNA barcoding; closely related species; southern Africa