Phylogeny Study of 20 Selected Species of Zingiberaceae from Ex situ Collections in Peninsular Malaysia

Zingiberaceae is widely distributed in Malaysia, with 750 species and 31 genera. This family comprises a different number of subfamilies and genera according to different taxonomic classification methods — classical taxonomy: one subfamily and four tribes vs molecular taxonomy: four subfamilies and six tribes. However, the taxonomic classification of Zingiberaceae is still debated, especially the classical taxonomy. It is due to some Zingiberaceae species showing cryptic morphologies that make it difficult to classify them through classical taxonomy, which refers to the unique morphological characteristics of a tribe/species. Therefore, accurate taxonomic classification is required by using a molecular approach. In this study, 20 selected species of Zingiberaceae collected from the Agricultural Conservatory Park, Institute of Bioscience (IBS), Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) were taxonomically classified using a molecular method with the help of three random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and three inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers until the tribe level. The combined RAPD and ISSR unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean (UPGMA) phylogenetic tree was comparable to Zingiberaceae’s current molecular and classical taxonomy. The 20 selected species were grouped into three tribes (Alpinieae, Zingiberaceae, and Globbeae). This finding has contributed additional biological information to better manage the 20 Zingiberaceae species in the Agricultural Conservatory Park, IBS, UPM. Further studies are needed to explore the genetic diversities and properties of Zingiberaceae species.