INITIAL APPLICATION OF RAPD MOLECULAR MARKERS TO EVALUATE THE GENETIC DIVERSITY OF JEWEL ORCHID (Anoectochilus spp.) ACCESSIONS

Tóm tắt

Jewel orchid (Anoectochilus spp.) is an important herbal plant in Vietnam which is at risk of exhaustion due to overexploitation. About of 15 different species of this plant has been reported in Vietnam with the variation in morphological features and medical value. The identification of jewel orchid is mainly based on personal experience relying on morphological traits leading the difficulty of genetic conservation of this plant. In this study, genetic richness and relativeness of 10 jewel orchid accessions collected from Ho Chi Minh City and nearby region were evaluated by using 20 Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) primers. Our results reveal that there is a large variation of genetic background among studied jewel orchid accessions. The combination of different RAPD markers found in this study could help to identify four jewel orchid genotypes. The results from this project could provide valuable information, which is necessary for classifying, identifying plant origins, breeding and conserving programs of jewel orchid in Vietnam.
Keywords: Anoectochilus spp., genetic diversity, molecular markers, RAPD