Dhabal Sukhamoy, Chakrabarty Anirban Kr, Banerjee Dipankar, Katiyar Chandra Kant, Rai Rajiva Kumar, Dubey Sunil Kumar
R&D Healthcare Division, Emami Limited, 13 B.T Road, Belgharia, Kolkata, West Bengal, 700056, India.
Mol Biol Rep. 2024 Dec 24;52(1):77. doi: 10.1007/s11033-024-10167-7.
Understanding the evolutionary history of plants and accurately identifying biologically important species and their families is crucial for the herbal and Ayurvedic industries. The genetic approach by DNA barcoding plays a pivotal role in accurate species identification, authentication and quality control. Due to various therapeutic properties, Withania somnifera has been used worldwide in traditional systems of medicine for centuries including Ayurveda and Unani. The increasing demand for W. somnifera products has led to concerns regarding the authenticity and quality of commercial herbal preparations. However, adulteration become major trouble for users and industry for safety reasons and authentication of the plant with proper DNA marker is a major concern.
DNA barcoding techniques and Phylogenetic analysis were employed to authenticate W. somnifera plant species using universal genetic markers. The markers were PCR amplified, sequenced and analyzed using BLAST-based and phylogeny-based identification methods.
The BLAST result shows the percent identity (PI) of ITS1, ITS2, trnK, atpB, rbcL and matK was 100%, 100%, 100%, 97.59%, 100 and 99.20% respectively with the NCBI reference sequence. However, ITS1 and ITS2 show the maximum sequence similarity with W. somnifera of NCBI data. Phylogenetic analysis using NCBI data further supports the role of ITS in the discrimination of W. somnifera from closely related species.
Therefore, the ITS gene may be considered promising a candidate for DNA barcoding for discrimination of W. somnifera from other species, its authentication and quality control.
了解植物的进化历史并准确识别具有生物学重要性的物种及其科属，对于草药和阿育吠陀产业至关重要。DNA条形码技术的遗传方法在准确的物种鉴定、认证和质量控制中起着关键作用。由于具有多种治疗特性，印度人参（Withania somnifera）在包括阿育吠陀和尤纳尼在内的传统医学体系中已被全球使用了几个世纪。对印度人参产品需求的增加引发了对商业草药制剂真实性和质量的担忧。然而，由于安全原因，掺假成为用户和行业的主要问题，使用合适的DNA标记对该植物进行鉴定是一个主要关注点。
采用DNA条形码技术和系统发育分析，使用通用遗传标记对印度人参植物物种进行鉴定。通过基于BLAST和基于系统发育的鉴定方法对标记进行PCR扩增、测序和分析。
BLAST结果显示，ITS1、ITS2、trnK、atpB、rbcL和matK与NCBI参考序列的序列同一性百分比（PI）分别为100%、100%、100%、97.59%、100%和99.20%。然而，ITS1和ITS2与NCBI数据中的印度人参显示出最大的序列相似性。使用NCBI数据进行的系统发育分析进一步支持了ITS在区分印度人参与近缘物种中的作用。
因此，ITS基因有望成为用于区分印度人参与其他物种、进行其鉴定和质量控制的DNA条形码候选基因。
