Plants possess a natural genetic diversity that is used for various scientific research purposes. This diversity is useful in deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) fingerprint and barcode studies, which have many applications in scientific research such as determining the relationships between plant species, determining parentage, creating genome maps, and determining genetic variations. It can also help understand evolutionary issues, identify species’ subspecies or races, and prepare phylogenetic trees and cladograms. Moreover, genetic diversity can assist in population genetics, plant breeding, revision studies, and forensic medicine applications. The widespread use of plant material in human life has led to the formation of the concept of criminal botany in the field of forensic sciences. This study, it was aimed to determine the origin of plant findings which frequently encountered at crime scenes by conducting criminal botanical investigations so that the ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase large subunit (rbcL/RuBisCO) gene was used to identify various exotic/tropical plant species (Ananas comosus (L.) Merr, Chamaedorea elegans Mart., Nolina recurvata (Lem.) Hemsl. (Beaucarnea recurvata Lem.), Pandanus veitchii hort., Phoenix dactylifera L., Phormium tenax J.R.Forst. & G.Forst., Sansevieria trifasciata Prain, Theobroma cacao L., Washingtonia filifera (Linden ex André) H.Wendl.)) grown in the tropical greenhouses of Istanbul University Alfred Heilbronn Botanical Garden (AHBG). This gene is specific to plants and is obtained from chloroplast. Different restriction enzymes (AccI, BamHI, DraI, PstI, and SacII) were used for typing these plants. Their molecular characterizations were investigated by using Cleaved Amplified Polymorphic Sequence (CAPS) markers, also known as Polymerase Chain Reaction-Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (PCR-RFLP), which is a technique based on the fragmentation of Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR)-amplified DNA regions with restriction enzymes/endonucleases using appropriate primers, resulting in DNA particle length polymorphism. Exotic and tropical plant samples, which are also fibrous plants, were subjected to DNA analysis to contribute to forensic botany in solving illegal activities and increase the use of plants as evidence in crime scene investigations.
Key words: Forensic botany, exotic and tropical plant species, ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase large subuni gene, restriction enzymes, cleaved amplified polymorphic sequences markers markers, deoxyribonucleic acid fingerprint and barcode
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