Botanical features and genetic profiling of Bauhinia retusa Roxb. growing in Egypt
Research Abstract
Bauhinia retusa Roxb. (Caesalpinioideae) is a large semi-deciduous tree cultivated in Egypt. In this
work, for the first time, botanical features including micro- and macro-morphological studies of different
organs of B.retusa Roxb. As well as, DNA fingerprinting were brought to light. This study presents an
examination of the botanical features of the leaves, petioles, stems and flower buds through
microscopical observation of the prepared entire, transverse sections and isolated elements of these
organs using light microscope. Also, Extraction of the Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) of B. retusa Roxb.
from leaf samples and Random Amplification of Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis was done using ten
primers of arbitrary sequences. Resulting in 22 fragments of amplified product, which were generated by
ten primers; the primer Operon C-19 produced the highest number of rapid amplified polymorphic
(RAPD) fragments (4 fragments), while the least number of fragments was produced by Operon A-18,
Operon B-2 and Operon B-9 (1 fragment). Micro- and macro-morphological characters in contribution to
DNA fingerprinting can be considered as the identifying parameters to authenticate and recognize B.
retusa Roxb.at the anatomical and genetic level.
Research Keywords
Botany; DNA fingerprinting; Fabaceae; Plant anatomy; RAPD