SIMPLE VERIFICATION OF in vitro – GROWN CLONES OF THE GENUS Drosera L. USING ITS MOLECULAR MARKERS

Abstract

Drosera L. is a genus of carnivorous plants that comprises approximately 250 species, although this number is probably not complete. Some of these taxa exhibit only small differences in morphological traits that can be partly influenced if the taxa are propagated in vitro. Here, we focus on the verification of putative clones of Drosera spathulata Labill., Drosera rotundifolia L. and Drosera binata var. Dichotoma species cultivated in vitro using molecular markers covering the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of 45S ribosomal DNA (rDNA). Following the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of ~360-bp DNA fragments and sequencing, the sequences were aligned with corresponding sequences in the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) database. In addition, each of tested PCR amplicons had a specific restriction profile that predominantly enables the differentiation of D. rotundifolia and D. spathulata; the shape of the leaves does not have to be a clear morphologically distinguishable trait.

Keywords

• Drosera binata
• Drosera rotundifolia
• Drosera spathulata
• ITS nucleotide sequences
• molecular identification