Department of Botany, Bishop Heber College (Autonomous), Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, 620017, India.
Centre for DNA Barcoding, Department of Genetic Engineering, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Kattankulathur, Tamil Nadu, 603203, India.
J Forensic Leg Med. 2021 Feb;78:102126. doi: 10.1016/j.jflm.2021.102126. Epub 2021 Feb 4.
Exposure to poisonous plants is hazardous to health; thus, reliable species identification is required to decide the most appropriate treatment. Since ingested plants are too much degraded for visual observation, DNA barcoding can be used as a molecular tool for species identification. Considering the universal primers, PCR and sequencing success rate, and diversity of the poisonous plants, the rbcL DNA marker was selected for molecular identification. A reference DNA barcode library for 100 poisonous plant species was created using rbcL DNA barcodes. For the poisonous plants represented in the library, 100% and 89% species differentiation was observed at the genus and species level, respectively. All the undifferentiated species were congeneric species. Mapping the metabolites of the poisonous plants to the DNA based phylogenetic tree indicated that the phylogenetically related species also had related toxic compounds. Therefore, genus-level identification may be sufficient in the practical application of DNA barcoding in poisoning cases. We conclude that rbcL can be used as a primary marker, and if required, ITS2 or trnH-psbA may be used as a secondary marker to identify the poisonous plants. The present study provides the foundation to develop a reliable molecular method to identify the poisonous species from the vomit samples of poisoning cases.
接触有毒植物对健康有害；因此，需要进行可靠的物种鉴定，以决定最合适的治疗方法。由于摄入的植物已经降解得无法进行肉眼观察，因此 DNA 条形码可作为物种鉴定的分子工具。考虑到通用引物、PCR 和测序成功率以及有毒植物的多样性，选择 rbcL DNA 标记物进行分子鉴定。使用 rbcL DNA 条形码创建了一个包含 100 种有毒植物的参考 DNA 条形码库。在库中代表的有毒植物中，在属和种水平上分别观察到 100%和 89%的物种分化。所有未分化的物种都是同属种。将有毒植物的代谢物映射到基于 DNA 的系统发育树上表明，亲缘关系相近的物种也具有相关的有毒化合物。因此，在 DNA 条形码在中毒案例中的实际应用中，属级别的鉴定可能就足够了。我们得出结论，rbcL 可以用作主要标记物，如果需要，ITS2 或 trnH-psbA 可以用作次要标记物来鉴定有毒植物。本研究为开发从中毒案例的呕吐物样本中识别有毒物种的可靠分子方法提供了基础。
