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Molecular characterization of the narrow-leaf cattail, Typha angustifolia L., was carried out using the
chloroplast maturase K (matK) gene sequence. The matK gene was isolated from the chloroplast and
amplified using the primers: forward matK F 5’- CGATCTATTCATTCAATATTTC-3’ and reverse matK R
5’- TCTAGCACACGAAAGTCGAAGT-3’. The amplified product was sequenced using the ABI PRISM
3730XL Analyzer. The 879 nucleotide sequences had a GC content of 32.08%. Highlights of the matK
gene of T. angustifolia using the data of the alignment of the 6 sequences available in the genebank is
provided in terms of the conserved, variable and singleton sites. The nucleotide sequences were also
translated into amino acids to compare the patterns of amino acid variation with those of the nucleotide
substitutions. The ratio of transition to transversion pairs was 1.25. A Blastn similarity search was
conducted and the sequences of other species of Typha namely, T. angustifolia, T. latifolia, T.
domingensis, and T.capensis together with 4 species of Sparganium, 2 species of Quesnelia and one each
of the genus Neoregelia and Billbergia were used to develop a phylogenetic tree. Analysis of the
maximum likelihood of 24 different nucleotide substitution patterns, indicated that the T92+G had the
least BIC and AIC scores and therefore considered the best model for the present data set. The
evolutionary tree depicts T.capensis, T.aungustifolia and T.latifolia to share a common ancestor among
themselves with T. domingensis being a closely related species. All the species of Sparganium were
grouped together in terms of their similar number of substitutions per site values and all the other
remaining plant species formed a different clade.
Keywords: Typha angustifolia, matK gene, chloroplast, molecular characterization, phylogenetics, cattail, Poales