TITLE:
DNA Barcoding of Nigeria’s Forest Species Listed in CITES and Other Endangered Plant Species of National Interest
AUTHORS:
Christie Oby Onyia, Obianuju Patience Ilo, Chosen Ekene Obih, Omokafe Ugbogu, Beatrice Onyinye Ojiego, Sunkanmi Saheed Rufai, Paschaleen Soromtochukwu Onyemaechi, Emmanuel Chukwudi Chukwuma
KEYWORDS:
Annonaceae, Apocynaceae, BOLD, CITES, DNA Barcoding, NCBI, rbcL
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Plant Sciences,
Vol.13 No.11,
November
21,
2022
ABSTRACT: Illegal trade is considered
one of the greatest threats to the loss of biodiversity of endangered plants.
Some of these plant species are often trafficked in processed forms, making it
extremely difficult for taxonomic experts to identify them. In the past,
illegal traders of endangered species have been arrested and prosecuted but
eventually cleared due to a lack of conclusive evidence. DNA barcoding is a
veritable tool to protect these endangered species from illegal trade. It
identifies all stages of the species’ life forms including processed products
(milled or powdered animal and plant parts). The study utilised the rbcL gene as a single barcode
region in the identification/authentication of 19 Nigeria’s endangered
forest species legislated under the CITES and other endangered species of
national interest. The generated sequence barcodes were used to query
NCBI-GenBank and BOLD databases. 57.89% of the samples were identified down to
species level and 42.11% to genus level. Amongst the 19 samples, sample (S7)
yielded a high-quality sequence for a single sequencing read (forward),
sufficient to identify the sample with a 99.81% identity match on NCBI-GenBank
and BOLD. The results reveal that the rbcL single barcode efficiently
identified most of the sampled plants; this supports the potential utilisation
of DNA barcoding in the accurate detection and conservation of CITES-listed
plants in Nigeria. The study documented the CITES-listed plants and other
essential plants endangered or threatened plants in Nigeria and provided the
first chloroplast DNA reference dataset to support the utilisation of DNA
barcoding to identify CITES-listed plant species in Nigeria, which is
significant for future studies.