title: DNA barcoding Chinese medicinal Bupleurum.
abstract: We tested 4 markers, namely nuclear internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2), psbA-trnH, matK, and rbcL, to evaluate these candidate DNA barcodes for distinguishing Bupleuri radix (Chaihu) from its adulterants. 51 plant samples of Bupleurum representing 19 species were collected from different areas in China. Amplification and sequencing were attempted for all the 4 candidate barcode regions, whose validity was assessed in terms of the success rate of PCR amplification and sequencing, differential intra- and inter-specific divergences, DNA barcoding gap and the ability to discriminate species. The results showed that ITS2 had the best performance in identifying Bupleurum with an identification efficiency of 73.68%, which, after combining with psbA-trnH, increased to 83.33%. We further evaluated the efficiency of ITS2 for discriminating the species of Bupleurum using a large database from GenBank, which archived data of 223 samples from 74 species, and ITS2 successfully discriminated 64.13% of the samples at the species level. In conclusion, the ITS2 can serve as a potentially useful barcode for Bupleurum species, with psbA-trnH as a supplementary locus.
authors.affiliation: School of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, China. Electronic address: chaozhi@smu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Zhi
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Chao
authors.affiliation: School of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, China.
authors.forename: Weiping
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zeng
authors.affiliation: School of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, China; Beijing Royal Intergrative Medicine Hospital, Beijing 102209, China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liao
authors.affiliation: School of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, China; Research & Development Center, Infinitus (China) Company Limited, Guangzhou 510623, China.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: School of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, China; Department of Pharmacy, Zhongshan People's Hospital, Zhongshan 528403, China.
authors.forename: Zhenbiao
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.affiliation: School of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, China.
authors.forename: Xiaolei
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D029972:Bupleurum / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics; D002681:China; D058893:DNA Barcoding, Taxonomic; D018744:DNA, Plant / Q000235:genetics; D021903:DNA, Ribosomal Spacer / Q000235:genetics; D061125:Genes, Chloroplast; D010946:Plants, Medicinal / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D018744:DNA, Plant; D021903:DNA, Ribosomal Spacer
keywords: Bupleuri radix; Bupleurum; DNA barcoding; ITS2; Identification; Traditional Chinese medicine