Phylogenetic Analysis of Black Peper (Piper Spp.) Population Collected in Different Locations of Vietnam Based on the ITSU1-4 Gene Region

Background: The internal transcribed spacer (ITS) of nuclear ribosomal DNA is one of the most commonly used DNA markers in plant phylogenetic and DNA barcoding analyses, and it has been recommended as a core plant DNA barcode. To compare and find out the analysis genetic diversity difference some pepper individuals collected in different localities in Vietnam when using the ITS of nuclear ribosomal DNA. The ITS gene region from the nuclear genomes were tested for their suitability as DNA barcoding regions of thirty-nine pepper individuals. Universal primers were used, and sequenced products were analyzed using the Maximum Likelihood method and Tamura-Nei model in the MEGA X program.Results: We did not observe high variability in intraspecific distance within the ITSu1-4 gene region between individuals, ranged from 0.000 to 0.155 (mean = 0.033). The size of the gene region has fluctuated from 667 to 685 bp between different individuals with the percentage (G + C) contained in the ITSu1-4 gene region was ranged from 54.776% to 60.805%, mean = 60.174%. The values of Fu’s Fs, D, Fu and Li’s D* and F* were negative as well (Fs = -0.209, D = -1.824; P < 0.05, D* = -1.205; not significant, P > 0.10 and F* = -1.699; not significant, 0.10 > P > 0.05), indicating an excess of recently derived haplotypes and suggesting that either population expansion or background selection has occurred. The value Strobeck’s S the obtained between individuals in a population is high (S = 0.684). The results of evolutionary relationships of taxa obtained 3 groups with the highest value of Fst is shown in the pairs of groups II and III (Fst = 0.151), and the lowest is in groups II and I (Fst = 0.015). All of the new sequences have been deposited in GeneBank under the following accession numbers MZ636718 to MZ636756.Conclusions: This database is an important resource for researchers working on Species of pepper in Vietnam and also provides a tool to create ITSu1-4 databases for any given taxonomy.