Abstract:
Cyperaceae is one of the prevalent family of flowering plants and the top tenth family
of angiosperm comprising about 5500 species dispersed in 109 genera all over the
world. The family members are generally known as sedges. Main distinguishing
features of the family members are having the trigonous stem with mostly bract longer
than and terminal inflorescence. The sedges are categorized as perennial herbs. These
plants have a role in numerous bioactivities and also have ethno-botanical importance
because various plants are used for treatment of disorders naturally. Cyperaceae is
distributed from watercourses, marshlands, bogs to prairies. Due to discrete
inflorescence and multifaceted morphology taxonomy of this family is very complex.
This research emphases on the biosystematic study of three Cyperaceae species;
Fimbristylis littoralis, Cyperus difformis and Carex setigera var. schalgintwietiana.
These specimens were collected from Northern areas of Pakistan. Firstly, for unveiling
the morphological characters stereomicroscope is used to observe various parts of
inflorescence: utricle, anthers, pollens and glumes. Scanning electron microscope
(SEM) is used to unveil the micro-morphological characters. Herbarium specimens
were submitted to PMNH. To further confirm identification molecular analysis is
performed. DNA extraction is performed using 2% CTAB DNA extraction protocol,
amplified through polymerase chain reaction using four marker genes ITS, ETS, rbcL
and matK and sequenced. These sequences were later submitted to NCBI. Geneious
prime were used for phylogenetic analysis. Three trees (Bayesian, NJ and maximum
likelihood) were constructed to unveil the phylogeny. This computational work showed
close relationship of specie with alike taxa. From this research, it was summarized that
ITS and ETS are excellent markers to identify these three members of sedges while
more research is needed to confirm rbcL and matK are good markers for relevant
species
