Utilidad de los códigos de barras de DNA en la identificación de plantas melíferas asociadas a la miel monofloral de Sabal yapa producida en el este de Yucatán, México

Abstract

Melliferous plants are natural source of nectar and pollen for honeybees and their pollen grains are present in honey. The melissopalynological study of Sabal yapa honey produced in Yucatan has shown that eighteen species contribute importantly to its honey composition. We use melliferous plants associated with Sabal honey to test the potential of three barcodes (rbcL, ITS2, and trnH-psbA) in species identification to confirm the botanical origin and authentication of honey. Secondarily, we test the success rates of amplification and sequencing of each barcode. A total of 38 sequences were generated: 10 for rbcL, 13 for ITS2 and 15 for trnH-psbA. The success rate in PCR amplification was 94.73 % for trnH-psbA and 84.21 % for ITS2, while for rbcL was 52.63 %. Regarding sequencing success, 100 % of the products were amplified with rbcL. For trnH-psbA and ITS2, the sequencing success was 88.9 % and 87.5 %, respectively. ITS2 produced a species identification efficiency of 46.15 %, followed by rbcL (30 %). For trnH-psbA, the rate of species identification was 13.33 %. The sequences generated in this work will allow the construction of a reliable library of barcodes of melliferous plants, and with forward increasing will be possible to have a solid base for metabarcoding studies in the honey of the Yucatan Peninsula.