Abstract

The genetic relationship among five species of Pinellia endemic in China was examined by inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) and sequence-related amplified polymorphism (SRAP) markers. Twelve ISSR primers amplified a total of 569 DNA fragments, of which 504 (88.58%) were polymorphic, whereas 38 SRAP primer combinations amplified 1826 fragments, of which 1431 (78.37%) were polymorphic. Cluster analysis showed that ISSR, SRAP and ISSR + SRAP dendrograms of the five species of Pinellia generally exhibited similar clustering patterns. Pinellia ternata, Pinellia cordata, Pinellia integrifolia and Pinellia peltata were clustered into group I, while Pinellia pedatisecta was in group II. Group I comprises two subgroups, that is, subgroups A and B. P. ternata and P. integrifolia were clustered into subgroup A, while P. cordata and P. peltata were clustered into subgroup B. The results suggested that P. cordata has the closest genetic relationship with P. peltata, and P. ternata is closely related to P. integrifolia. P. pedatisecta is a sister group to the other species. The results of this study might be useful for guiding the exploitation and conservation of Pinellia in China.

Key words: Pinellia, genetic relationship, inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR), sequence-related amplified polymorphism (SRAP).