Incomplete concerted evolution of nrDNA ITS in Lycium / 药学学报

ABSTRACT

In this study, nrDNA ITS sequences of Lycium cultivars were sequenced and used to test the existence of incomplete concerted evolution and pseudogenes. Together with 44 ITS sequences retrieved from GenBank, the pattern of base substitutions, GC content, 5.8S conserved motifs, the minimum free energy of secondary structures, nucleotide diversity and phylogenetic relationship of the samples were analyzed. While 83 of the 144 sequences were identified as pseudogenes, the results suggested a high degree of polymorphism and putative pseudogenes in Lycium, suggesting an incomplete concerted evolution of the ITS region. ITS polymorphism and pseudogene of Lycium were systematically tested for the first time. This research provides a references for ITS sequence to be used in the study of Lycium germplasm resources and DNA barcode identification.