Intraspecific variation in Cannabis sativa L. based on intergenic spacer region of chloroplast DNA

Abstract

We analyzed the nucleotide sequences of the non-coding region of chloroplast DNA: the intergenic spacer between trnL (UAA) 3'exon and trnF (GAA). Two kinds of sequence, 'type-1' and 'type-2,' were detected in 33 populations of Cannabis sativa. The length of the 'type-1' fragment was 354 bp. In contrast, the 'type-2' fragment from 3 populations was 353 bp long, with only one base deletion compared to 'type-1.' The fragment length from Humulus lupulus was 353 bp with a 1-bp deletion, and ten 1-bp substitutions compared to the sequences from C. sativa 'type-1.' Furthermore, we could clearly identify differences between C. sativa and H. lupulus using single- strand conformation polymorphism of PCR products (PCR-SSCP) analysis.