Detection of plastid-based snps to resolve Bambusa tuldalongispiculata-nutans-teres complex in bamboo taxonomy

The SNP barcodes are a viable option for identifying cultivars or species, hence to find single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that can distinguish the Bambusa tulda-longispiculata-nutans-teres complex, the plastid genes rbcL (ribulose bi-phosphate carboxylase), matK (maturase K), and rpoC1 (RNA polymerase C1) were targeted. Through amplification of these plastid genes and sequencing of amplicons, alignment, and mining of the sequence, SNPs were discovered using NovoSNP software. Over 2045 bp sequenced plastid DNA, seven SNPs were identified in targeted three barcode genes. Three SNPs were found in the matK gene, which was of 868 bp length, whereas two SNPs were found in each of the rbcL gene's 730 bp and rpoC1's 447 bp lengths. Based on that, discovered that B. nutans differed from all other species in terms of SNPs present in the rbcL and rpoC1 genes, but B. longispiculata was determined to be distinct from all three species with respect to SNPs present in the matK gene. Out of seven identified SNPs, the unique heterozygous nucleotide A/G at locus 520G/A and the nucleotide ‘C’ at locus 713 bp were observed in Bambusa longispiculata, which were absent in all the other three species. These identified SNPs can be utilized to differentiate these taxonomically closely related bamboo species.