Available online freely at www.isisn.org Bioscience Research Print ISSN: 1811-9506 Online ISSN: 2218-3973 Journal by Innovative Scientific Information & Services Network RESEARCH ARTICLE BIOSCIENCE RESEARCH, 2019 16(2): 1474-1484. OPEN ACCESS Authentication of Cordia dentata Poir. Growing in Egypt using ISSR and DNA barcoding Ahmed Sayed Fouad * , Rehab Mahmoud Hafez and Rim Hamdy Botany and Microbiology Department, Faculty of Science, Cairo University, 12613 Cairo, Egypt. *Correspondence: ahmedsfouad@yahoo.com Accepted: 25 April. 2019 Published online: 19 May 2019 Cordia dentate was introduced to Egypt as ornamental and timber trees in the beginnings of the 19 th Century. Urbanization is responsible for disappearance of many plant species including C. dentata that are represented with only two trees exhibiting different morphological characteristics. The present study aimed to authenticate these trees using rbcl- and matk-based DNA barcoding as well as ISSR markers. Results reflected that matk and rbcl sequences for both trees were 100% identical and showed 100% similarities with corresponding sequences recorded for C. dentate in BOLD System and Gene Bank. Nine ISSR primers, out of ten, reflected polymorphism between the two trees. Thus it is recommended to use DNA barcoding in species identification then ISSR for further intraspecific resolution. Keywords: Cordia dentate, biodiversity, rbcl, matk, ISSR INTRODUCTION Biodiversity is a general term used to describe the sum of all life’s varieties in a defined location or even across the whole planet. It occurs at ecosystem, species and genetic levels (Glowka et al., 1994). Plant biodiversity is a major source for food and drug and constitutes a natural reservoir for genetic raw material essential for breeding programs of many important crops (Rao, 2004). However, the human activities associated with over-usage of plant resources in parallel with the over-production of pollutants exaggerate the rate of plant extinction reaching one species per day (Hilton-Taylor, 2000). The Egyptian territories host 2088 species belonging to 742 genera of 120 families (Khedr et al., 2002). Cordia L. (family Cordiaceae) is a large pantropical genus including about 300 species of trees and shrubs, distributed in Africa, South Asia and tropical America (Mabberley, 2008). In the Egyptian flora, Cordia was monospecific genus represented by C. sinensis (El Hadidy and Boulos, 2009). Along with another seven Cordia species, C. dentata was introduced to Egyptian gardens in the beginnings of the 19 th Century as ornamental and timber trees (Ascherson and Schweinfurth, 1887; Delchevalerie, 1899; Bircher and Bircher, 2000; Diwan et al., 2004; Hamdy, 2010). C. dentate is also rich in valuable compounds (eg: Rosmarinic acid, Quercetin, 3-o-rutinoside and Rutin) important for treatment of many human diseases (Thirupathi et al., 2008; Hossan et al., 2014; Wang et al., 2015; Ganeshpurkar and Saluja, 2017). The growing urban activities have demolished many gardens and are responsible for disappearance of many plant species. Consequently, C. dentata in Egypt is represented with only two individuals growing in zoological garden; the first is typical C. dentata while the second is C. dentata form (Amer et al., 2016). Identification and characterization of endangered plant species is a prerequisite to maintain biodiversity (Bapat et al., 2012).