MATK Sequence Based Plant DNA Barcoding Failed to Identify Bambusa (Family:Poaceae) Species from Northeast India

Bamboos, popularly known as poor man's timber for their multipurpose use in the rural life are widely found in tropical and subtropical countries. India, the second largest producer of bamboo in the world has rich diversities of bamboos with about 130 species spreading over 18 genera. We tested the performance of matK as a species identifier of selected Bambusa species through Basic Local Alignment Search Tool. Genomic DNA from young leaves of selected species were isolated and matK gene (-800bp) of chloroplast DNA was amplified and sequenced for species level identification. Among the six determined matK sequences, Bambusa nutan (JX966234), Bambusa arundinacea (JX966235), Bambusa balcooa (JX966236) and Bambusa cacharensis (JX966237) are novel sequences. The matK sequence showed easy amplification and alignment but it showed very low variation and even in some cases no variable and parsimony site were found. These matK sequences were shown high similarity (99%-100%) with both inter and intra species. The core DNA barcode loci matK failed to provide species specific marker in Bambusa due to interspecies hybridization, introgression and polyploidization.