Page 4 - Plant Gene and Trait

PLANT GENE & TRAIT
2014, Vol. 5, No.7, 1-9 http://pgt.biopublisher.ca
Research Report Open Access
Evolutionary Studies in Sub-families of Leguminosae Family Based on matK Gene
Sagar S. Patel1 , Dipti B. Shah1 , Hetalkumar J. Panchal 2
1 G. H. Patel Post Graduate Department of Computer Science and Technology, Sardar Patel University, Vallabh Vidyanagar, Gujarat-388120, India.
2 Gujarat Agricultural Biotechnology Institute, Navsari Agricultural University, Surat, Gujarat- 395007, India.
Corresponding author email: sgr308@gmail.com; Authors
Plant Gene and Trait, 2014, Vol.5, No.7 doi: 10.5376/pgt.2014.05.0007
Copyright © 2014 Patel, et al, This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted
use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract Several studies have been done using the matK gene sequence in phylogenetic reconstruction because; the matK has higher
variation than any other chloroplast genes. Although the variation is slightly higher at the 5’ region than at the 3’ region, approximate
even distribution was observed throughout the entire gene. In addition, the high proportion of transversion of the matK gene might
provide more phylogenetic information. These factors underscore the usefulness of the matK gene in systematic studies and suggest
that comparative sequencing of matK may be appropriate for phylogenetic reconstruction at subfamily and family levels. Leguminosae
family is one of the largest families that contain thousands of species of plants, herbs, shrubs and trees worldwide. In this study, few
species which are found in Gujarat state of India have been considered as group of plants with their respective DNA and Protein matK
sequences from NCBI database. This study showed that species belonging to Fabaceae (Papilionaceae), Mimosaceae and
Caesalpiniaceae subfamilies have different members based on morphological characters or taxonomical classification and on the other
side evolutionary results showed that they fall in different groups or species of same genus fall distantly other than in same genus. We
concluded that as per botanical classification; species belonging to Leguminosae family are classified differently based on
morphological characters while few evolutionary results shows as they are related with morphological or taxonomical classification
and other results are not related with morphological or taxonomical classification.
Keywords Leguminosae family, Bioinformatics, matK.
[I] Introduction
Leguminosae family contains species of Plants, Herbs,
Shrubs, and Trees. Legumes are used as crops, forages
and green manures; they also synthesize a wide range
of natural products such as flavours, drugs, poisons and
dyes. The legume family is the third largest family of
angiosperms (Mabberley, 1997) with approximately
730 genera and over 19,400 species worldwide (Lewis
et al., in press). Legumes are able to convert
atmospheric nitrogen into nitrogenous compounds
useful to plants which is achieved by the presence of
root nodules containing bacteria of the genus
Rhizobium. These bacteria have a symbiotic
relationship with Legumes, fixing free nitrogen for the
plants; in return legumes supply the bacteria with a
source of fixed carbon produced by photosynthesis.
This enables many legumes to survive and compete
effectively in poor nitrogen conditions. Legumes are
noticeably absent to poorly represent in mesic
temperate habitats, including many arctic and alpine
regions and the understory of cool temperate forests.
The predilection of legumes for semi-arid to arid
habitats is related to a nitrogen-demanding metabolism,
which is thought to be an adaptation to climatically
variable or unpredictable habitats whereby leaves can
be produced economically and opportunistically
(McKey, 1994; Wojciechowski et al., 2004).
Leguminosae family is further classified into three
subfamilies; Fabaceae (Papilionaceae),
Caesalpiniaceae and Mimosaceae.
1.1. matK gene
The matK gene, formerly known as orfK, is emerging
as yet another gene with potential contributions to plant
molecular systematics and evolution (Johnson and
Soltis, 1994, 1995; Steele and Vilgalys, 1994; Liang
and Hilu, 1996). The gene, ~1500 base pairs (bp), is
located within the intron of the chloroplast gene trnK,
on the large single-copy section adjacent to the inverted
repeat. Further, the molecular information generated
from matK has been used to resolve phylogenetic
Preferred citation for this article:
Patel, et al., 2014, Evolutionary studies in sub-families of Leguminosae family based on matK gene, Plant Gene and Trait, Vol.5, No.7: 1-9 (doi:
10.5376/pgt.2014.05.0007)
Received: 22 Jul., 2014 Accepted: 25 Aug., 2014 Published: 16 Sep., 2014
PLANT GENE AND TRAIT