DNA Barcoding and ITS2 Secondary Structure Predictions in Taro ( Colocasia esculenta L. Schott) from the North Eastern Hill Region of India.

Taro ( L. Schott, ), an ancient root and tuber crop, is highly polygenic, polyphyletic, and polygeographic in nature, which leads to its rapid genetic erosion. To prevent the perceived loss of taro diversity, species discrimination and genetic conservation of promising taro genotypes need special attention. Reports on genetic discrimination of taro at its center of origin are still untapped. We performed DNA barcoding of twenty promising genotypes of taro indigenous to the northeastern hill region of India, deploying two chloroplast-plastid genes, and , and the ribosomal nuclear gene . The secondary structure of was determined and molecular phylogeny was performed to assess genetic discrimination among the taro genotypes. The and genes were highly efficient (>90%) in amplification and sequencing. However, the barcode region achieved significant discrimination among the tested taro genotypes. All the taro genotypes displayed most similar sequences at the conserved and loci. However, distinct sequence lengths were observed in the barcode region, revealing accurate discriminations among the genotypes. Multiple barcode markers are unrelated to one another and change independently, providing different estimations of heritable traits and genetic lineages; thus, they are advantageous over a single locus in genetic discrimination studies. A dynamic programming algorithm that used base-pairing interactions within a single nucleic acid polymer or between two polymers transformed the secondary structures into the symbol code data to predict seven different minimum free energy secondary structures. Our analysis strengthens the potential of the gene as a potent DNA barcode candidate in the prediction of a valuable secondary structure that would help in genetic discrimination between the genotypes while augmenting future breeding strategies in taro.