Data from: DNA barcoding of invasive plants in China: a resource for identifying invasive plants

Invasive plants have aroused attention globally for causing ecological damage and having a negative impact on the economy and human health. However, it can be extremely challenging to rapidly and accurately identify invasive plants based on morphology because they are an assemblage of many different families and many plant materials lack sufficient diagnostic characteristics during border inspections. It is therefore urgent to evaluate candidate loci and build a reliable genetic library to prevent invasive plants from entering China. In this study, five common single markers (ITS, ITS2, matK, rbcL and trnH-psbA) were evaluated using 634 species (including 469 invasive plant species in China, 10 new records to China, 16 potentially invasive plant species around the world but not introduced into China yet and 139 plant species native to China) based on three different methods. Our results indicated that ITS2 displayed largest intra- and interspecific divergence (1.72% and 91.46%). Based on NJ tree method, ITS2, ITS, matK, rbcL and trnH-psbA provided 76.84%, 76.5%, 63.21%, 52.86% and 50.68% discrimination rates, respectively. The combination of ITS+matK performed best and provided 91.03% discriminatory power, followed by ITS2+matK (85.78%). For identifying unknown individuals, ITS+matK had 100% correct identification rate based on our database, followed by ITS/ITS2 (both 93.33%) and ITS2+matK (91.67%). Thus, we propose ITS/ITS2+matK as the most suitable barcode for invasive plants in China. This study also demonstrated that DNA barcoding is an efficient tool for identifying invasive species.

入侵植物因造成生态破坏、对经济与人类健康产生负面影响而受到全球广泛关注。然而，入侵植物隶属于多个不同的科，且在口岸检疫环节中多数植物材料缺乏足够的鉴定特征，导致基于形态学快速准确识别入侵植物极具挑战性。因此，亟待评估候选基因位点并构建可靠的基因库，以阻止入侵植物进入中国。本研究采用三种不同方法，对634个物种的5种常见单标记位点（ITS、ITS2、matK、rbcL、trnH-psbA）进行了评估，所涉物种包括中国境内469种入侵植物、10个中国新记录种、16种全球范围内具有潜在入侵性但尚未传入中国的植物，以及139种中国本土植物。研究结果表明，ITS2的种内与种间分化程度最高，分别为1.72%和91.46%。基于邻接（NJ）树法，ITS2、ITS、matK、rbcL及trnH-psbA的物种鉴别率依次为76.84%、76.5%、63.21%、52.86%与50.68%。其中，ITS+matK的组合鉴别效果最佳，鉴别力达91.03%，其次为ITS2+matK（85.78%）。针对未知样本的鉴定，基于本研究构建的数据库，ITS+matK的正确鉴定率达100%，紧随其后的为ITS/ITS2（均为93.33%）与ITS2+matK（91.67%）。据此，我们推荐将ITS/ITS2+matK作为中国入侵植物最适配的DNA条形码（DNA Barcoding）。本研究同时证实，DNA条形码是鉴定入侵物种的高效工具。