DNA barcoding of two species of Coffea (Rubiaceae)

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Background of the Study
Systematics and taxonomy involves identifying and resolving relationships among species. But with species today being more taxonomically complex, integrating molecular technology as an alternative tool in species identification has helped systematic s gain new perspective in evolutionary studies .Taxonomy has always been the forefront in the study of life and forever will be (Wheeler 2004). And with the increase in the development within the field of molecular biology and genetics, DNA is now used as a way in identifying species. DNA Barcodes are tags along a specific gene sequence that have been proposed in species identification. The use of DNA as a barcode that was developed by Hebert et al. (2003) has been the system used because of its accurate and stable method, that even a tiny tissue sample will suffice the identification of that species (Laiou et al., 2013). DNA Barcoding nowadays is being used as a universal system in identification and taxonomic clarification (Hollingsworth et al., 2011). The importance of DNA barcoding is evident in such a way that the pace of species discovery will emphasize sorting of species from different taxa classifications representing new species (Hebert et al., 2005). Barcoding promotes biological applications such as identification of medicinal plants and even plant nearing extinction (Muellner et al. 2011). DNA Barcoding defines the expansion and discovery of the world’s ever-expanding inventory of species’ diversity.
DNA barcoding requires it to be standard, scalable and minimal. Plants’ low rate of nucleotide substitution in the mitochondrial gene has been the source of major debate regarding a plant’s code for its identity. CO1 has been the standard gene used fo...

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