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BMC Plant Biology
Springer Nature
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Abstract: |
The genus Ficus of the family Moraceae, is one of the largest genera of angiosperms, with diverse pharmaceutical
applications and biological activities. The traditional approaches based on the morphological traits have been
frequently implemented for taxonomical identification of the different taxa of Ficus, however, encompassing these
features are quite laborious, due to the dependence of these phenotypic traits on the environmental conditions.
So, authenticating the taxonomical identity of the Ficus taxa with molecular barcoding and metabolic profiling, as
relatively stable traits, could be a relevant approach for confirming the traditional phenotypic traits of this genus.
Nine species of the genus Ficus namely F. amplissima Sm., F. benjamina L. F. binnendijkii, F. drupacea var. pubescens,
F. elastica Roxb., F. microcarpa L., F. religiosa L., F. tinctoria subsp. gibbosa and F. virens var. sublancelata in Egypt, were
selected for this study. From the anatomical features, three species of subsection Urostigma, F. religiosa, F. virens
var. sublanceolata have cystoliths on the abaxial layer, whereas in F. amplissima it was on the adaxial layer. The
UPGMA dendrogram of the studied Ficus taxa has been generated from the 21 anatomical characters, categorized
the studied taxa into two clusters (I and II) of average distance ~ 3.5, each cluster has been further divided into
subclusters I and II. The sub-cluster I includes F. religiosa, F. virens var. sublanceolata and F. tinctoria subsp. gibbosa
were grouped together to subsection Urostigma, while the sub-cluster II of the cluster I includes F. benjamina and
F. amplissima. From the DNA barcoding analysis, three clusters I, II and III were emerged, the cluster I includes F.
benjamina, F. binnendjikee, and F. amplissima. The cluster II, F. virens var. sublanceolata and F. religiosa that belong
to subsection Urostigma, while, the cluster III includes F. elastica and F. drupacea var. pubescens, F. microcarpa
that belongs to subsection Conosycea. From the metabolic profiling of Ficus species, the major compounds;
H-cycloprop-azulen-7-ol, 3,7,11,15-Tetramethyl-2-hexadecen-1-ol, 2-(9-octadecenyloxy), pentadecanoic acid, phytol,
sitosterol and 9,12-octadecadienoic acid were the common among the taxa, with an obvious fluctuation, that
could be a chemotaxonomic markers for these species of Ficus. Based on the metabolic profiling, two distinct
clusters I and II were evolved, the cluster I involve F. elastica, F. benjamina, F. drupacea var. pubescens, F. amplissima,
while, the cluster II had F. tinctoria subsp. gibbosa and F. religiosa. The fluctuation on the metabolites of the tested
Ficus species could be a metabolic fingerprint for each species. So, the delamination of the tested plants based on
their anatomical traits was typically matched to the separation based on the ITS sequence analysis.
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