Biosystematic Study of Cyperaceae Species: Fimbristylis littoralis, Cyperus difformis, and Carex setigera var. schlagintweitiana from Pakistan

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