In Silico Study of Genetic Diversity in Goodyera spp. Using the matK DNA Barcode

The Genus Goodyera (Orchidaceae) is a terrestrial orchid, valued for its attractive foliage. However, resolving the taxonomy of Goodyera remains difficult based solely on morphology. The matK gene has shown high efficacy in resolving phylogenetic relationships within orchids. This in silico study aims to analyze the genetic diversity and kinship among Goodyera species using DNA barcoding based on the matK gene region. A total of 11 matK sequences from Goodyera species and one outgroup were retrieved from NCBI and analyzed using MEGA 12 and the MULTALIN web-based application. Phylogenetic tree reconstruction based on the matK gene divided Goodyera species into two ingroup clades and one outgroup. Genetic distances ranged from 0.000 – 0.138. The matK region indicates a low level of genetic diversity within Goodyera, with a genetic variance of 14.22%. Nucleotide composition shows a high content of thymine and adenine. These findings demonstrate the usefulness of matK and support the genetic collection efforts to clarify overlapping morphological characters in Goodyera. Further research using additional chloroplast markers is recommended to strengthen species resolution and database completeness.