Morphological and molecular barcode analysis of the medicinal tree Mimusops coriacea (A.DC.) Miq. collected in Ecuador

Katherine Bustamante; Efrén Santos-Ordóñez; Migdalia Miranda; Ricardo Pacheco; Yamilet Gutiérrez; Ramón Scull

doi:10.7717/peerj.7789

Morphological and molecular barcode analysis of the medicinal tree Mimusops coriacea (A.DC.) Miq. collected in Ecuador

PeerJ. 2019 Oct 11:7:e7789. doi: 10.7717/peerj.7789. eCollection 2019.

Authors

Katherine Bustamante¹, Efrén Santos-Ordóñez^{2

3}, Migdalia Miranda⁴, Ricardo Pacheco², Yamilet Gutiérrez⁵, Ramón Scull⁵

Affiliations

¹ Facultad de Ciencias Químicas, Ciudadela Universitaria "Salvador Allende," Universidad de Guayaquil, Guayaquil, Ecuador.
² Centro de Investigaciones Biotecnológicas del Ecuador, ESPOL Polytechnic University, Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral, ESPOL, Guayaquil, Ecuador.
³ Facultad de Ciencias de la Vida, ESPOL Polytechnic University, Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral, ESPOL, Guayaquil, Ecuador.
⁴ Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Matemáticas, ESPOL Polytechnic University, Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral, ESPOL, Guayaquil, Ecuador.
⁵ Instituto de Farmacia y Alimentos, Universidad de La Habana, Ciudad Habana, Cuba.

Abstract

Background: Mimusops coriacea (A.DC.) Miq., (Sapotaceae), originated from Africa, were introduced to coastal areas in Ecuador where it is not extensively used as a traditional medicine to treat various human diseases. Different therapeutically uses of the species include: analgesic, antimicrobial, hypoglycemic, inflammation and pain relieve associated with bone and articulation-related diseases. Furthermore, Mimusops coriacea could be used as anti-oxidant agent. However, botanical, chemical or molecular barcode information related to this much used species is not available from Ecuador. In this study, morphological characterization was performed from leaves, stem and seeds. Furthermore, genetic characterization was performed using molecular barcodes for rbcL, matk, ITS1 and ITS2 using DNA extracted from leaves.

Methods: Macro-morphological description was performed on fresh leaves, stem and seeds. For anatomical evaluation, tissues were embedded in paraffin and transversal dissections were done following incubation with sodium hypochlorite and safranin for coloration and fixated later in glycerinated gelatin. DNA extraction was performed using a modified CTAB protocol from leaf tissues, while amplification by PCR was accomplished for the molecular barcodes rbcL, matK, ITS1 and ITS2. Sequence analysis was performed using blast in the GenBank. Phylogenetic analysis was performed with accessions queried in the GenBank belonging to the subfamily Sapotoideae.

Results: Leaf size was 13.56 ± 1.46 × 7.49 ± 0.65 cm; where is a macro-morphological description of the stem (see Methods). The peel of the seeds is dark brown. Sequence analysis revealed that amplicons were generated using the four barcodes selected. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that the barcodes rbcL and matK, were not discriminated between species within the same genus of the subfamily Sapotoideae. On the other hand, the ITS1 and ITS2 were discriminative at the level of genus and species of the Sapotoideae.

Keywords: ITS1; ITS2; Medicinal; matK; rbcL.

Grants and funding

The authors received no funding for this work.