Evaluation of chloroplast and nuclear DNA barcodes for species identification in Terminalia L.

• We evaluated DNA barcodes for species identification in Terminalia L.
• Reference DNA barcode library was created for economically important species.
• trnH-psbA ranked the best marker for species identification.
• ITS2 was more helpful to study the species relationship in the sections.

The genus Terminalia L. belongs to the Combretaceae family, which includes several medicinal and threatened species with high trade value. Species of Terminalia in India belong to four sections and species identification within the sections is considered to be complex due to the lack of sufficient taxonomical characters and the existence of morphotypes. Therefore, we tested the effectiveness of three chloroplast DNA barcodes (rbcL, matK, and trnH-psbA) and a nuclear DNA barcode (ITS2) for the discrimination of Terminalia species. A reference DNA barcode library consisting of 120 DNA barcodes from ten species of Terminalia was created. Intra-specific divergence was not observed among the accessions for any marker. Inter-specific divergence was highest in trnH-psbA (10.6%), followed by ITS2, matK and rbcL markers. The success of species differentiation by DNA barcodes was 100% with trnH-psbA, 80% with matK and ITS2, and 10% with rbcL. In the phylogenetic trees, the rbcL marker did not differentiate the species in any section. Two species from the section Catappa were not differentiated by matK and ITS2 markers. Only trnH-psbA resolved all the species and ranked the best among four markers for species identification. However, regarding species relationship studies, ITS2 was found to be better than other markers because it formed a separate clade for each section.