The first initiative of dna barcoding of palaquium rostratum (miq.) burck from Bangka, Indonesia

Abstract Palaquium rostratum (Miq.) Burck with a local name Nyatoh, is the floral identity of Bangka Belitung Islands and has widely potential uses, making conservation efforts for this species important. However, there is still insufficient data about Nyatoh including information on its genetic diversity. In this study we used the chloroplast DNA ( rbcL ) as gene markers to identify P. rostratum in Bangka Island. The method included DNA extraction, PCR amplification, and DNA sequence analysis. Total 606 bp of rbcL sequences was obtained from Nyatoh leaves. When comparing to other DNA references using BLASTn, the barcode region of P. rostratum in this study showed up to 99% similarity with Palaquium sp. collected from Temburong, Brunei Darussalam. Further, phylogenetic analysis revealed the DNA barcode marker used were able to assign correctly to genus level while they showed a lower or no success in assigning taxa to species. For future, we recommend other DNA barcode or combination (e.g. ITS, rbcL + matK) to have a higher level of discriminatory power.