TITLE:
Bioinformatics a Tool for Biosystematics Studies of Lagenaria siceraria (Mol.) Standl. Complex
AUTHORS:
Fortune O. Awala, Benjamin C. Ndukwu, Ikechukwu O. Agbagwa
KEYWORDS:
Bioinformatics, Biosystematics, Phylogenetic, Diversity, Lagenaria siceraria (Mol.) Standl. Complex
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Plant Sciences,
Vol.10 No.10,
October
16,
2019
ABSTRACT: Bioinformatics has been a major
tool in the revolution of plant systematics in recent times. The diversity of fruit
shapes in Lagenaria siceraria (Mol.) standl. species has been of great concern because of its fruit complexity.
This study is based on the application of rubisco enzyme using rbcL marker because of its conservativeness
and its ability to discriminate below the specific level hence its usage to sequence
the chloroplast genome with ABI, PRISM 377 DNA sequencer. The sequences obtained
were viewed using MEGA X software and subsequently subjected to validation through
National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) using Nucleotide Basic Local
Alignment Search Tool (BLAST N). The result obtained showed that all the sequences
belong to Lagenaria siceraria (Mol.) standl. with percentages ranging from 95% to 100% for query cover
sequences and 98% to 100% for identity sequences. From the taxonomic report obtained
sequence A, C, G, H, J, Q has the highest hits of 44 on Lagenaria siceraria out of 109 total value,
sequence O and R has the highest hits of 44 on Lagenaria siceraria out of the total value
of 111, sequence V has the highest hits of 44 on Lagenaria siceraria out of 119 total value
and sequence X finally has the highest value hits of 44 on Lagenaria sceriania out of 105 total value,
based on this report, phylogenetic tree was constructed to show the level of relatedness
of the different fruit diversity of L. siceraria complex. This work therefore has aided in the molecular
characterization of Lagenaria siceraria (Mol.) standl. landraces found
in Nigeria.