MOLECULAR PHYLOGENY OF DIFFERENT SPECIES OF FAMILY VERBENACEAE USING CHLOROPLAST rps14 GENE

Family Verbenaceae has immense importance for ornamental, forage resources, aromatic and medicinal purposes. In the present study chloroplast rps14 gene is used for determination of phylogenetic relationship among Verbenaceae species and structural validation of rps14 protein through Ramachandran plots. The rps14 gene was amplified and sequenced analysis was done by MEGA7, I-TASSER and RAMPAGE. In phylogram the Verbenaceae species show little genetic distance of 0.0050 that revealed close genetic relationship between them. The genetic diversity ranges from 0.092 to 0.017 and value of overall mean distance was 0.067. The nucleotide diversity in Tajima's Neutrality Test was 0.063165. The phylogenetic tree based on rps14 gene depicted close relationship of Verbena tenuisecta, V officinalis, V bonariensis and V incisa among them with BS value of 67% The Duranta erecta and Citharexylum spinosum show close relationship in group I with BS value of 57%. In Group II V tenuisecta and V officinalis depicted close phylogenetic association with BS value of 100%. The rps14 protein structure validation by RAMPAGE revealed that V tenuisecta, C. spinosum, V bonariensis, V incisa and P. volubilis had good quality protein structural models because these species had <= 2% amino acid residues occurred in the outlier region. This study shows close genetic relationship and low genetic diversity between Verbenaceae species. The low nucleotide diversity also revealed close relationship between Verbenaceae species. The phylogenetic tree indicated close genetic relationship between Verbenaceae species with well supported BS values. The validation of rps14 protein structure by RAMPAGE predicted the best quality protein structural models. This study demonstrated the rps14 gene as useful marker for assessment of phylogenetic studies.