Fernandoa brilletii (Dop) Steen is an endemic tree species in Vietnam with high economic value, its trunk is used in construction and high-class furniture making due to its beautiful wood grain and good quality. This is a highly endangered plant species in the wild but so far has not been included in the Vietnam Red Book. Therefore, studies for the evaluation of genetic diversity are necessary to propose measures to conserve the genetic resources of F. brilletii species in the whole country in general and in Thai Nguyen province in particular. Currently, barcoded DNA has been used as molecular markers with high accuracy in species identification and genetic diversity assessment. In plants, the DNA sequences used as barcoding in identification or classification are usually the nucleotide sequences of the chloroplast and nuclear genomes, including both coding and non-coding regions. In this study, three barcoded DNA marker matK, trnH-psbA and ITS were used to initially study the barcoded DNA for F. brilletii species distributed in Thai Nguyen province. The cloning efficiency by PCR and nucleotide sequencing of three barcoded DNA markers in F. brilletii species reached 100%. In which, the nucleotide sequences of matK and trnH-psbA gene segments of all F. brilletii samples in 5 districts of Thai Nguyen province have an absolute similarity. Particularly, the nucleotide sequence of the ITS barcode showed the appearance of two variants with two different nucleotide positions between the studied F. brilletii samples.
The matK, trnH-psbA, and ITS sequences of F. brilletii species were successfully registered on the international gene bank (GenBank) with codes ON603621, ON603622, ON614190, ON614191, respectively. The world database of barcoded DNA as well as the international gene bank has not yet published any barcoded DNA sequences of F. brilletii species. Therefore, this study is the first to identify barcoded DNA sequences for this precious and endemic tree species, contributing to enriching the barcode DNA database for the barcoded DNA system of plants.