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. 2021 Aug 31;11(19):13348-13362.
doi: 10.1002/ece3.8057. eCollection 2021 Oct.

Unraveling the plant diversity of the Amazonian canga through DNA barcoding

Santelmo Vasconcelos  1 , Gisele L Nunes  1 , Mariana C Dias  1   2 , Jamily Lorena  1 , Renato R M Oliveira  1   2 , Talvâne G L Lima  1 , Eder S Pires  1 , Rafael B S Valadares  1 , Ronnie Alves  1 , Maurício T C Watanabe  1 , Daniela C Zappi  1   3 , Alice L Hiura  1 , Mayara Pastore  1   4 , Liziane V Vasconcelos  1   5 , Nara F O Mota  1   4 , Pedro L Viana  4 , André S B Gil  4 , André O Simões  6 , Vera L Imperatriz-Fonseca  1   7 , Raymond M Harley  8 , Ana M Giulietti  1   9 , Guilherme Oliveira  1
Affiliations

Unraveling the plant diversity of the Amazonian canga through DNA barcoding

Santelmo Vasconcelos et al. Ecol Evol. .

Abstract

The canga of the Serra dos Carajás, in Eastern Amazon, is home to a unique open plant community, harboring several endemic and rare species. Although a complete flora survey has been recently published, scarce to no genetic information is available for most plant species of the ironstone outcrops of the Serra dos Carajás. In this scenario, DNA barcoding appears as a fast and effective approach to assess the genetic diversity of the Serra dos Carajás flora, considering the growing need for robust biodiversity conservation planning in such an area with industrial mining activities. Thus, after testing eight different DNA barcode markers (matK, rbcL, rpoB, rpoC1, atpF-atpH, psbK-psbI, trnH-psbA, and ITS2), we chose rbcL and ITS2 as the most suitable markers for a broad application in the regional flora. Here we describe DNA barcodes for 1,130 specimens of 538 species, 323 genera, and 115 families of vascular plants from a highly diverse flora in the Amazon basin, with a total of 344 species being barcoded for the first time. In addition, we assessed the potential of using DNA metabarcoding of bulk samples for surveying plant diversity in the canga. Upon achieving the first comprehensive DNA barcoding effort directed to a complete flora in the Brazilian Amazon, we discuss the relevance of our results to guide future conservation measures in the Serra dos Carajás.

Keywords: Amazon basin; Carajás; DNA barcodes; ITS2; rbcL; vascular plants.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Distribution of the canga formation in the Serra dos Carajás, Pará, Brazil. The circumscriptions of the Carajás National Forest (CNF) and Campos Ferruginosos National Park (CFNP) are evidenced within the Amazon Forest
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Maximum likelihood tree from the rbcL and ITS2 concatenated matrix of the canga plants of the Serra dos Carajás and related regions in the Eastern Amazon. The colored branches correspond to the listed orders. The trees bringing the detailed information on the accessions and support values using the six different matrices are available in the OSF repository (Supplementary Figures S01–S13; https://osf.io/5xt3u/)
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Relative abundance of the observed species in the DNA metabarcoding analysis with bulk samples collected in six different canga plots in the Serra dos Carajás, as detailed in the Table A3
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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