The invention relates to a method for identifying
medicinal plants by utilizing
nucleotide sequences, in particular to an application of a
nucleotide sequence of an rDNA (recombinant deoxyribonucleic acid) ITS (
internal transcribed spacer)-D3 region in establishment of
a DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) bar code
identification system for
medicinal plants. The application comprises the following steps of: firstly, detecting the
nucleotide sequences of the ITS-D3 regions of
medicinal plants, and establishing
a DNA bar code
database; then, detecting the nucleotide sequence of the ITS-D3 region of a sample to be identified; constructing a clustering tree by the detected nucleotide sequence and the nucleotide sequences of the ITS-D3 regions in the
DNA bar code
database; determining the medicinal
plant having the closest genetic relationship with the sample to be identified in the
DNA bar code
database according to the clustering tree, and comparing the difference between the nucleotide sequences of the ITS-D3 regions of the medicinal
plant and the sample to be identified; and then, by taking the name of the species of the medicinal
plant having the closest genetic relationship with the sample to be identified in the database as a reference and combining information such as morphological characteristics and the like, determining the name of the species of the sample to be identified. In the invention, the
DNA bar codes have the characteristics of good primer universality, accurate
sequence comparison and strong species distinguishing capability.