Genetic diversity and population structure of ginseng in China based on RAPD analysis

Abstract

Population genetic diversity was estimated from forty-four individual ginseng (Panax ginsengC.A. Meyer) plants collected from seven geographical populations located in Heilongjiang, Liaoning, and Jilin Provinces of China as well as the People's Republic of Korea by using randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers. Overall, 41 polymorphic loci were amplified using ten primer pairs. The polymorphism percentage ranged from 50% to 100% among seven local populations of ginseng, indicating that there is plentiful genetic diversity in wild ginseng populations. The genetic diversity at the species level was higher than that at the population level. Variance analysis showed that there was a significant difference among populations in genetic diversity. The genetic differentiation coefficient (i.e., FST) indicates that 43% of the variation occurred among populations, which indicates that substantial genetic differentiation occurred among populations. At the same time, the measured value of gene flow (Nm) was 0.66 based on the observed genetic differentiation coefficient among populations, suggesting there was moderate gene flow among populations.