Molecular marker studies on Balanites aegyptiaca and allied species for species delimitation, identification, and authentication

In systematic botany, species delimitations are addressed most frequently. The desert date Balanites is a plant with the controversial membership in the Balanitaceae and Zygophyllaceae families. The morphological characters of Balanites showed close relationship with the members of Zygophyllaceae while barcode genes showed relatedness with the members of Celastraceae. On the other hand, Gymnosporia montana, a Celastraceae plant, showed close relatedness with Zygophyllaceae. In this study, cpDNAs (plastomes) of Balanites aegyptiaca and G. montana were extracted, sequenced, and annotated for the detailed analysis. These plastomes were compared and contrasted with plastomes of other members of allied groups from the NCBI databases. The comparative genomics study revealed that B. aegyptiaca related more with family Zygophyllaceae than Celastraceae. Detailed studies performed for molecular marker analysis showed distinction in marker patterns. It is concluded that B. aegyptiaca, assigned in a separate family, may be justifiable at genomic level, and screened markers can be used for identification and authentication. The nucleotide probes identified can be used for identification and authentication of these medicinally important plants.