The angiosperm family Bromeliaceae comprises over 3.500 species characterized by exceptionally high morphological and ecological diversity, but a very low genetic variation. In many genera, plants are vegetatively very similar which makes determination of non flowering bromeliads difficult. This is particularly problematic with living collections where plants are often cultivated over decades without flowering. DNA barcoding is therefore a very promising approach to provide reliable and convenient assistance in species determination. However, the observed low genetic variation of canonical barcoding markers in bromeliads causes problems. In this study the low-copy nuclear gene Agt1 is identified as a novel DNA barcoding marker suitable for molecular identification of closely related bromeliad species. Combining a comparatively slowly evolving exon sequence with an adjacent, genetically highly variable intron, correctly matching MegaBLAST based species identification rate was found to be approximately double the highest rate yet reported for bromeliads using other barcode markers. In the present work, we characterize Agt1 as a novel plant DNA barcoding marker to be used for barcoding of bromeliads, a plant group with low genetic variation. Moreover, we provide a comprehensive marker sequence dataset for further use in the bromeliad research community.

中文翻译：

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低拷贝核基因Agt1作为凤梨科的新型DNA条形码标记

被子植物凤梨科有超过3500种，其形态和生态多样性极高，而遗传变异却非常低。在许多属中，植物在营养上非常相似，这使得很难确定未开花的凤梨科植物。这对于活的收藏品尤其成问题，在这些收藏品中，植物通常被种植数十年而不开花。因此，DNA条形码是一种非常有前途的方法，可为物种确定提供可靠和方便的帮助。然而，观察到的凤梨科植物中典型条形码标记的低遗传变异会引起问题。在这项研究中，低拷贝核基因Agt1被鉴定为一种新型的DNA条形码标记，适合分子鉴定紧密相关的菠萝科物种。发现将相对缓慢进化的外显子序列与相邻的，遗传上高度可变的内含子相结合，可以正确匹配基于MegaBLAST的物种识别率，约为使用其他条形码标记报道的凤梨科植物的最高识别率。在目前的工作中，我们将Agt1表征为一种新的植物DNA条形码标记，可用于对凤梨科（一种具有低遗传变异的植物群）进行条形码编码。此外，我们提供了全面的标记序列数据集，供在凤梨科研究社区中进一步使用。我们将Agt1表征为一种新型植物DNA条形码标记，可用于对凤梨科（一种低遗传变异的植物群）进行条形码编码。此外，我们提供了全面的标记序列数据集，供在凤梨科研究社区中进一步使用。我们将Agt1表征为一种新型植物DNA条形码标记，可用于对凤梨科（一种遗传变异低的植物群）进行条形码编码。此外，我们提供了全面的标记序列数据集，供在凤梨科研究社区中进一步使用。