Analysis of chloroplast maturasek (matk) gene and internal transcribed spacer (its) regions from globba patens and globba leucantha for species identification

One of the rhizomatous plants, Globba sp., is native to South East Asia. There are various species of Globba plants whose morphological characteristics are identical to one another. It was difficult to tell the difference solely by looking at the plants' morphology. The matK gene and ITS regions have recently been identified as a "barcode" gene which can be used to distinguish between various plant species. Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) was extracted from plant leaves for this study, and further steps included DNA quantification, agarose gel electrophoresis, and PCR amplification of the ITS and matK gene regions. For the identification of Globba patens and Globba leucantha, there is very little information available utilizing the maturaseK (matK) gene and Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS) regions as molecular markers. Both G. patens and G. leucantha leaf samples were collected in Ulu Sat, Kelantan, and used in the DNA extraction process. Following that, matK and ITS amplification and analysis were performed using the isolated DNA of G. patens and G. leucantha. The size of the band seen during the PCR procedure was used to distinguish between G. patens and G. leucantha plants.