Identification of Atractylodes japonica and A. macrocephala byAFLP and SCAR Markers

摘要

Backchul, Atractylodes japonica or A. macrocephala, is a very important Chinese medicinal herb plant in Korea. This study was carried out to develop a method that could be used to discriminate between A. japonica and A. macrocephala based on molecularmarkers. Amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) analysis was carried out to develop sequence characterized amplified region (SCAR) markers. Initially, 176 reliable AFLP bands were produced with sizes ranging from 100 to 500 bp. A total of 74 (42%) of these bands were polymorphic. The phenotypic frequency of each band was calculated and used in estimating genetic diversity (H) within populations. The mean H of A. japonica (0.211) was higher than that (0.146) of A. macrocephala. One AFLP marker, AjAF-1 contained 168 bp nucleotide sequences and was specific to A. japonica. The AmAF-1 marker contained 138 bp nucleotides and was specific to A. macrocephala. The SCAR markers derived from these two AFLP markers enabled a rapid discrimination between A. japonica and A. macrocephala, as well as between Korean and Chinese herbal medicines obtained from Korean herbal markets.