Morphological and Genetic Variations in Moringa oleifera Lam. (Moringaceae) Accessions from Three Sites in Luzon, Philippines

The Department of Biology would like to invite everyone to the online thesis defense of 𝗠𝘀. 𝗝𝘂𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗻𝗲 𝗘𝗿𝗶𝗸𝗮 𝗥. 𝗔𝗹𝘃𝗶𝗮𝗿, 𝗠𝗦𝗰. 𝗕𝗶𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆 𝗰𝗮𝗻𝗱. on 𝗢𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝟭𝟰, 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟯 (𝗦𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗱𝗮𝘆) 𝗮𝘁 𝟭𝟬:𝟬𝟬𝗔𝗠 𝗣𝗦𝗧 online via Zoom.

Her thesis is entitled: 
"𝗠𝗼𝗿𝗽𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗚𝗲𝗻𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗰 𝗩𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗠𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗮 𝗼𝗹𝗲𝗶𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗮 𝗟𝗮𝗺. (𝗠𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗮𝗰𝗲𝗮𝗲) 𝗔𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗟𝘂𝘇𝗼𝗻, 𝗣𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗶𝗽𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀"

Thesis Adviser:
Dr. Vivian A. Panes

Panelists:
Dr. Janlo M. Robil
Dr. Emmanuel D. Delocado 
Dr. Mark Lloyd F. Dapar

Kindly email zmaini@ateneo.edu for the meeting link and details.

Abstract

"Moringa oleifera, locally known as malunggay, has many uses as alternative medicine, food source and raw material for cosmetics, textiles and construction. It has also been studied extensively, mostly to validate its effectivity as an alternative medicine for a variety of ailments. There are only a few studies which have focused on validating the identity of M. oleifera accessions internationally, and locally. This study introduces an integrative approach for species identification and phylogenetic analysis wherein morphological, ecological and other genetic data are utilized in combination with molecular data in the form of DNA barcodes. In this study, the identities of M. oleifera accessions from Benguet, Pangasinan and Quezon City were validated using the barcode markers matK, rbcL and ITS. Carica papaya from its sister taxa was used as an outgroup. Environmental parameters in the sampling area and the morphological characters of each of the plants sampled were measured. The morphologic characteristics of the samples significantly differed among the three sampling areas (p < 0.005). Genomic DNA from all the samples were successfully extracted using Plant DNAzol and Potassium Ethyl Xanthogenate mode of extraction, amplified using polymerase chain reaction and sequenced through Sanger sequencing. Sequence length for matK ranged from 842-865 bp, rbcL sequence length ranged from 472-634 bp and ITS sequence length ranged from 699-819 bp. NCBI BLAST queries using matK and rbcL sequences showed 99-100% similarity with M. oleifera sequences in the database, whereas ITS sequences showed similarity as low as 70.68%. Phylogenetic analyses showed that the accessions were related to each other even if they were collected from different areas in Luzon. However, the phylogenetic trees generated were supported with low bootstrap values. This study shows that plants of the same species with different morphological characteristics and growth environments still shows molecular and genetic similarities. It also provides another approach to the process of identification and validation, especially of extant plant species.

Keywords: Moringa oleifera, DNA barcoding, species identification, integrative taxonomy"