Research Projects

Molecular phylogeny is a field that studies the evolutionary relationships of organisms by comparing homologous molecules from different organisms. Non-coding regions of nuclear rDNA and cpDNA have potential to elucidate plant phylogenetic relationships, while higher order secondary structures of rDNA ITs1 and ITs2 can provide additional information about the evolutionary circumscription of a taxon. Compensatory base changes (CBCs) can also measure the evolutionary time for a speciation event. The genus Pancratium L., a medicinally important genus, has been a debate in bulbous monocot systematics. It comprises approximately 20 species distributed in West Africa, Namibia, Canary Islands, the Mediterranean basin, and tropical Asia. Phytochemical studies have shown that several types of alkaloids, such as Pancratistatin, lycorine, crinine, and haemanthamine, have biological activity. In India, the genus Pancratium comprises nearly nine species, many of which show continuous morphological characters, leading to a convoluted taxonomy. To address this issue, an explicit phylogenetic study within the Indian species of Pancratium is necessary. Various tools, such as nuclear DNA content estimation, fluorochrome staining, and karyotype analysis, have been found to be effective in delimiting interspecific relationships. However, detailed cytogenetic characterization is lacking for Indian Pancratium species, and no reports on banding analysis or genome size estimation are available. This project aims to explore a comprehensive molecular systematic relationship among Indian Pancratium species based on rDNA ITs and cpDNA non-coding sequences, rDNA ITs secondary structures, and cytogenetic and morphological analysis.