Multilocus marker-based delimitation of Salicornia persica and its population discrimination assisted by supervised machine learning approach

The Salicornia L. has been considered one of the most taxonomically challenging genera due to high morphological plasticity, intergradation between related species, and lack of diagnostic features in preserved herbarium specimens. In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), only one species of this genus, Sa...

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Main Authors: Rahul Jamdade, Khawla Al-Shaer, Mariam Al-Sallani, Eman Al-Harthi, Tamer Mahmoud, Sanjay Gairola, Hatem A. Shabana
格式: Article
語言:English
出版: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2022-01-01
叢編:PLoS ONE
在線閱讀:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9328517/?tool=EBI
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author Rahul Jamdade
Khawla Al-Shaer
Mariam Al-Sallani
Eman Al-Harthi
Tamer Mahmoud
Sanjay Gairola
Hatem A. Shabana
author_facet Rahul Jamdade
Khawla Al-Shaer
Mariam Al-Sallani
Eman Al-Harthi
Tamer Mahmoud
Sanjay Gairola
Hatem A. Shabana
author_sort Rahul Jamdade
collection DOAJ
description The Salicornia L. has been considered one of the most taxonomically challenging genera due to high morphological plasticity, intergradation between related species, and lack of diagnostic features in preserved herbarium specimens. In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), only one species of this genus, Salicornia europaea, has been reported, though investigating its identity at the molecular level has not yet been undertaken. Moreover, based on growth form and morphology variation between the Ras-Al-Khaimah (RAK) population and the Umm-Al-Quwain (UAQ) population, we suspect the presence of different species or morphotypes. The present study aimed to initially perform species identification using multilocus DNA barcode markers from chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) and nuclear ribosomal DNA (nrDNA), followed by the genetic divergence between two populations (RAK and UAQ) belonging to two different coastal localities in the UAE. The analysis resulted in high-quality multilocus barcode sequences subjected to species discrimination through the unsupervised OTU picking and supervised learning methods. The ETS sequence data from our study sites had high identity with the previously reported sequences of Salicornia persica using NCBI blast and was further confirmed using OTU picking methods viz., TaxonDNAs Species identifier and Assemble Species by Automatic Partitioning (ASAP). Moreover, matK sequence data showed a non-monophyletic relationship, and significant discrimination between the two populations through alignment-based unsupervised OTU picking, alignment-free Co-Phylog, and alignment & alignment-free supervised learning approaches. Other markers viz., rbcL, trnH-psbA, ITS2, and ETS could not distinguish the two populations individually, though their combination with matK (cpDNA & cpDNA+nrDNA) showed enough population discrimination. However, the ITS2+ETS (nrDNA) exhibited much higher genetic divergence, further splitting both the populations into four haplotypes. Based on the observed morphology, genetic divergence, and the number of haplotypes predicted using the matK marker, it can be suggested that two distinct populations (RAK and UAQ) do exist. Further extensive morpho-taxonomic studies are required to determine the inter-population variability of Salicornia in the UAE. Altogether, our results suggest that S. persica is the species that grow in the present study area in UAE, and do not support previous treatments as S. europaea.
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spelling doaj.art-5d387c5c61d84d07bac7d1331ff43a802022-12-22T01:33:13ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032022-01-01177Multilocus marker-based delimitation of Salicornia persica and its population discrimination assisted by supervised machine learning approachRahul JamdadeKhawla Al-ShaerMariam Al-SallaniEman Al-HarthiTamer MahmoudSanjay GairolaHatem A. ShabanaThe Salicornia L. has been considered one of the most taxonomically challenging genera due to high morphological plasticity, intergradation between related species, and lack of diagnostic features in preserved herbarium specimens. In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), only one species of this genus, Salicornia europaea, has been reported, though investigating its identity at the molecular level has not yet been undertaken. Moreover, based on growth form and morphology variation between the Ras-Al-Khaimah (RAK) population and the Umm-Al-Quwain (UAQ) population, we suspect the presence of different species or morphotypes. The present study aimed to initially perform species identification using multilocus DNA barcode markers from chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) and nuclear ribosomal DNA (nrDNA), followed by the genetic divergence between two populations (RAK and UAQ) belonging to two different coastal localities in the UAE. The analysis resulted in high-quality multilocus barcode sequences subjected to species discrimination through the unsupervised OTU picking and supervised learning methods. The ETS sequence data from our study sites had high identity with the previously reported sequences of Salicornia persica using NCBI blast and was further confirmed using OTU picking methods viz., TaxonDNAs Species identifier and Assemble Species by Automatic Partitioning (ASAP). Moreover, matK sequence data showed a non-monophyletic relationship, and significant discrimination between the two populations through alignment-based unsupervised OTU picking, alignment-free Co-Phylog, and alignment & alignment-free supervised learning approaches. Other markers viz., rbcL, trnH-psbA, ITS2, and ETS could not distinguish the two populations individually, though their combination with matK (cpDNA & cpDNA+nrDNA) showed enough population discrimination. However, the ITS2+ETS (nrDNA) exhibited much higher genetic divergence, further splitting both the populations into four haplotypes. Based on the observed morphology, genetic divergence, and the number of haplotypes predicted using the matK marker, it can be suggested that two distinct populations (RAK and UAQ) do exist. Further extensive morpho-taxonomic studies are required to determine the inter-population variability of Salicornia in the UAE. Altogether, our results suggest that S. persica is the species that grow in the present study area in UAE, and do not support previous treatments as S. europaea.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9328517/?tool=EBI
spellingShingle Rahul Jamdade
Khawla Al-Shaer
Mariam Al-Sallani
Eman Al-Harthi
Tamer Mahmoud
Sanjay Gairola
Hatem A. Shabana
Multilocus marker-based delimitation of Salicornia persica and its population discrimination assisted by supervised machine learning approach
PLoS ONE
title Multilocus marker-based delimitation of Salicornia persica and its population discrimination assisted by supervised machine learning approach
title_full Multilocus marker-based delimitation of Salicornia persica and its population discrimination assisted by supervised machine learning approach
title_fullStr Multilocus marker-based delimitation of Salicornia persica and its population discrimination assisted by supervised machine learning approach
title_full_unstemmed Multilocus marker-based delimitation of Salicornia persica and its population discrimination assisted by supervised machine learning approach
title_short Multilocus marker-based delimitation of Salicornia persica and its population discrimination assisted by supervised machine learning approach
title_sort multilocus marker based delimitation of salicornia persica and its population discrimination assisted by supervised machine learning approach
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9328517/?tool=EBI
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