ZooPlantLab, Dipartimento di Biotecnologie e Bioscienze, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, Piazza della Scienza 2, 20126, Milan, Italy.
Int J Legal Med. 2010 Nov;124(6):595-603. doi: 10.1007/s00414-010-0447-3. Epub 2010 Mar 31.
The plant exposures are one of the most frequent poisonings reported to poison control centres. The diagnosis of intoxicated patients is usually based on the morphological analysis of ingested plant portions; this procedure requires experience in systematic botany, because the plant identification is based on few evident traits. The objective of this research is to test DNA barcoding approach as a new universal tool to identify toxic plants univocally and rapidly. Five DNA barcode regions were evaluated: three cpDNA sequences (trnH-psbA, rpoB and matK) and two nuclear regions (At103 and sqd1). The performance of these markers was evaluated in three plant groups: (1) a large collection of angiosperms containing different toxic substances, (2) congeneric species showing different degrees of toxicity and (3) congeneric edible and poisonous plants. Based on assessments of PCR, sequence quality and resolution power in species discrimination, we recommend the combination of plastidial and nuclear markers to identify toxic plants. Concerning plastidial markers, matK and trnH-psbA showed consistent genetic variability. However, in agreement with CBOL Plant Working Group, we selected matK as the best marker, because trnH-psbA showed some problems in sequences sizes and alignments. As a final and relevant observation, we also propose the combination of matK with a nuclear marker such as At103 to distinguish toxic hybrids form parental species. In conclusion, our data support the claim that DNA barcoding is a powerful tool for poisonous plant identifications.
植物暴露是中毒控制中心报告的最常见中毒之一。中毒患者的诊断通常基于摄入植物部分的形态分析;这一程序需要系统植物学的经验,因为植物的鉴定是基于几个明显的特征。本研究的目的是测试 DNA 条码方法作为一种新的通用工具,用于快速、明确地识别有毒植物。评估了五个 DNA 条码区:三个 cpDNA 序列(trnH-psbA、rpoB 和 matK)和两个核区(At103 和 sqd1)。这些标记在三个植物群中进行了性能评估:(1)含有不同有毒物质的被子植物的大型集合;(2)显示不同程度毒性的同属种;(3)同属的可食用和有毒植物。基于对 PCR、序列质量和在物种鉴别中分辨率的评估,我们建议组合使用质体和核标记来识别有毒植物。关于质体标记,matK 和 trnH-psbA 表现出一致的遗传变异性。然而,我们根据 CBOL 植物工作组的建议,选择了 matK 作为最佳标记,因为 trnH-psbA 在序列大小和比对方面存在一些问题。作为最终的相关观察,我们还建议将 matK 与核标记如 At103 结合使用,以区分有毒杂种与亲本物种。总之,我们的数据支持 DNA 条码是识别有毒植物的有力工具的说法。