Origanum L. (Lamiaceae) is an important genus of medicinal and aromatic plants used since ancient times as culinary herbs and remedies in traditional medicine. Although it is a relatively small genus, intra-generic species delineation, as well as its inter-generic relationships within tribe Mentheae, are still poorly understood. High resolution melting (HRM) analysis, coupled with microsatellite markers (SSRs), could facilitate the molecular identification and characterization of certain genotypes more efficiently and relatively faster when compared to other analytical methods. In this study, 38 Origanum samples corresponding to six Origanum taxa (O. dictamnus, O. majorana, O. onites, O. scabrum, O. sipyleum, and O. vulgare subsp. hirtum) were analyzed, using six microsatellite loci. Our goal was to molecularly identify and discriminate among the selected samples and to evaluate the ability of the HRM technique as an analytical tool for the discrimination of Origanum species from Greece. The temperature-shifted melting curves produced by the HRM analysis, resulted in 98 unique HRM profiles, which enabled the discrimination of the Origanum genotypes studied. According to the similarity dendrogram based on the HRM profiles, six unique clusters were formed, each one corresponding to a single taxon. In conclusion, HRM genotyping provided a fast, cost-effective method, well suited for the molecular characterization and identification of Origanum taxa and for the authentication of the original genetic material.

中文翻译：

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牛至属植物的高分辨率熔解（HRM）基因分型：用于鉴定目的的分子鉴定和鉴别。

牛至属（菊科）是药用和芳香植物的重要属，自古以来就被用作烹饪草药和传统药物。尽管它是一个相对较小的属，但人们对属内物种的描述及其在部落风神族内部的属间关系仍然知之甚少。与其他分析方法相比，高分辨率熔解（HRM）分析与微卫星标记（SSR）结合可以更有效且相对更快地促进某些基因型的分子鉴定和表征。在这项研究中，使用六个微卫星基因座分析了对应于六个牛至属类群（O. dictamnus，O。majorana，O。onites，O。scabrum，O。sipyleum和O. vulgare hirtum亚种）的38个牛至属样品。我们的目标是分子识别和区分所选样本，并评估HRM技术作为区分希腊牛至属物种的分析工具的能力。HRM分析产生的温度变化的熔解曲线产生了98个独特的HRM图谱，从而可以区分所研究的牛至基因型。根据基于HRM配置文件的相似性树状图，形成了六个唯一的群集，每个群集对应一个单一的分类单元。总之，HRM基因分型提供了一种快速，经济高效的方法，非常适合牛至植物分类群的分子表征和鉴定以及原始遗传材料的鉴定。