Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 March 2011
Sustainable utilization of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture has been increasingly discussed at both national and international forums. Besides exploitation, conservation of plant genetic resources has become an integral part of these discussions. Conservation aims at maintaining the diversity of living organisms, their habitat and the interrelationship between organisms and their environment. For achieving such goals, appropriate conservation strategies have to be adopted. Determining the genetic makeup of a particular plant species is of critical importance when planning a suitable conservation strategy. In this study, we sequenced the chloroplast trnK intron, matK and rbcL gene aimed at understanding the rarity of Nymphaea tetragona, a critically rare and endangered plant of India found at only one location. We extended our investigation to other Nymphaea species such as N. nouchali, N. pubescens and N. rubra that are commonly available throughout India. Interestingly, matK gene of N. tetragona revealed high number of non-synonymous substitutions. Molecular evolutionary analysis indicated that three of these sites may be under mild selective pressures. Such adaptive changes at the DNA and protein sequence level of matK gene may have been associated with the colonization of N. tetragona, suggesting that it could have migrated from China.