Identification of some Iranian Cardamine species using the ITS molecular marker

The genus Cardamine L. in Brassicaceae comprises about 200 species in the world and 7 species in Iran. It has great morphological and karyological diversity and complex evolutionary history. This plant was collected from six different parts of Iran. The identity of these species was further explored by DNA extraction from young leaves and amplification of the nuclear ribosomal DNA (nrDNA) internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region by ITS4 and ITS5 primers. The amplified DNA was sequenced via Takapozist Company. Phylogeny reconstructions were performed using MEGA7 software. Blast and phylogeny analysis identified the collected plants as C.hirsuta C.flexuosa, C.tenera and C.uliginosa. Two known europian ecotypes of C. hirsuta (azureus and oxford from Max Planck Institute) were used as control which confirmed the outcome. These results not only confirmed the presence of at least four Cardamine species in Iran but also showed the effectiveness of ITS marker in identification of different species in the genus Cardamine.