Identification of roots of woody species using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis

Within the last two decades, substantial progress has been made in understa nding seedbank dynamics and the contribution of the soil seed bank to a pos tdisturbance plant community. There has been relatively little progress, ho wever, in understanding perennial bud-bank dynamics and the contribution of the soil bud bank to secondary succession. This lack of information is due primarily to the inability to reliably identify roots, rhizomes and lignot ubers that lie dormant beneath the soil surface. This investigation address ed the issue of identification of below-ground woody structures. The first objective was to develop a method that used molecular tools to identify woo dy plant species from subsoil tissue samples. The second objective was to d evelop a key in which molecular markers served as criteria for the identifi cation and differentiation of selected tree and shrub species common to the mountains of northeast Oregon and southeast Washington. Application of res triction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis of polymerase chain r eaction (PCR)-amplified rbcL appears to be a reliable method to identify an d differentiate 15 plants to the genus level. Two restriction enzymes, DpnI I and HhaI, provided restriction site polymorphisms in the PCR product. The fragment number and length were used to develop an identification key. How ever, plants not analysed in this 'exploratory key' might share the same ba nding patterns, resulting in a false identification of unknowns.