OBJECTIVETo investigate the genetic diversity of main germplasm of Atractylodes macrocephala in China and the genetic differentiation of the germplasm of A. macrocephala.

METHODA molecular marker ISSR was used to analyze the genetic diversity of 7 populations of A. macrocephala and a population of A. lancea.

RESULTTwelve primers were used in the PCR amplification of 86 samples of A. macrocephala and 5 samples of A. lancea. Sixty-three bands with sizes ranged from 100 to 2500 bp were generated from 12 primers. Of all the 63 bands, 55 bands were polymorphic among 86 individuals of A. macrocephala, the percentage of polymorphic bands were 87.30% at the species level. The percentage of polymorphic bands (PPL) for a single population ranged from 58.73% to 71.43% (mean, 64.85%). Among the 7 populations, a population from Panan, GM exhibited highest variability (PPL =71.43%; HE = 0.2835; I = 0.4267). A dendrogram constructed by an unweighted pair group method of cluster analysis showed that populations from Panan constructed one branch and separated from other populations. In the AMOVA analysis, low level of genetic differentiation among populations was detected, 90.52% of the variability existed in population.

CONCLUSIONThe genetic diversity of cultivated A. macrocephala in China is high, which is good for the production of high quality herb medicine.