Genetic Diversity of Morinda officinalis Based on ITS and matK, rbcL and Interspace trnH-psbA Genes on the Chloroplast

1 National Institute of Drug Quality Control, Vietnam 2 Hanoi University of Pharmacy, Vietnam 3 National Institute of Medicinal Materials, Vietnam 4 Agricultural Genetics Institute, Vietnam 5 Institute of Drug Quality Control, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam *Corresponding author: tran.viethung168@gmail.com Abstract The species of Morinda is native to China and Vietnam. Among them, Morinda officinalis How., is traditionally used as ailments for many diseases and developed into various healthy food for human health. The DNA barcoding is a useful and reliable method for the identification of species, especially the processed material, including Radix Morindae officinalis. In this study, the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of nuclear ribosomal RNA genes and three other chloroplast genes including maturase K (matK), ribulose-1,5bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase large subunit (rbcL), psbA-trnH intergenic spacer region (psbA–trnH) were sequenced. The results showed that the matK and ITS genes regions are very similar in the four M. officinalis samples, suggesting that they may stem from ordinary roots in a common origin. The rbcL and trnH-psbA sequences begin to accumulate mutations and on the trnH-psbA, as a sample has separated from the group. In this case, the rbcL and trnH-psbA sequences are useful to analyze the variation under species and geographic impacts. The combination of these genes is suitable for the identification Baiji tian at species and sub-species level.