Molecular Identification of Insect Pollinators of Perennial Buckwheat Fagopyrum Acutatum

The herbaceous perennial wild species of buckwheat, known as Fagopyrum acutatum (Lehm.) Mansf. ex. K Hammer, is frequently pollinated by wild insects. In current study, twenty-two insect pollinators species were successfully identified using the mitochondrial DNA marker, cytochrome oxidase subunit I (mtCOI). In the NCBI- BLAST (Basic Local Alignment Search Tool), current Genbank sequences had a similarity ranging from 98% to 100%. Average AT content was significantly higher at 69.9% compared to the GC content of 29.8%. Phylogenetic analysis by constructing phylogeny tree using the neighbor-joining method revealed two clades. Further this study shows that mitochondrial genome sequencing is a quick, accurate, and reliable method for identifying species and establishing genetic relatedness and phylogenetic relationships.