Identification of Mango (Mangifera indica L.) cultivars in the Mekong Delta using ISSR markers and DNA barcodes

Mango (Mangifera indica L.) is a biologically and economically important fruit crop in Vietnam. However, the authentication of various cultivars and accessions of Mangifera indica L. has still been limited. In this study, 10 Inter simple sequence repeats (ISSRs) molecular markers and four DNA barcodes (ITS, ycf1b, trnH-psbA, and atpF-atpH) were used to distinguish 30 accessions of three mango cultivars (Chau Nghe, Hoa Loc, and Cat Chu). DNA was extracted using the cetyltrimethylammonium bromide protocol, and the internal transcribed spacer (ITS), ycf1b, trnH-psbA, and atpF-atpH regions were amplified and sequenced for alignment analysis. Based on ISSR data, 76 bands were generated, with the percentage of polymorphism equal to 61.84%. The phylogenetic tree constructed from ISSR data showed significant genetic variation between Chau Nghe and the other mango cultivars. In terms of barcoding assessment, nuclear region ITS and plastid gene ycf1b only discriminated between mango cultivars while two remaining plastid locus could be used for authentication of the difference of mango accessions. The barcoding results also confirmed close genetic relatedness between Mekong Delta mango cultivars and other species of the Mangifera genus from the National Center for Biotechnology Information database. These findings provide new insights into mango cultivar identification, classification, breeding, and conservation.