The Phylogeny Analysis Of Epimedium L. Based On Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism

Taxa of Epimedium L.have been used as the famous medicinal-plants and currently being new ornamental ground cover plants with tremendous potential for commercial development.Nowadays,the studies on Epimedium species are mainly focus on their chemical constituents and the molecular marker research needs further thoroughness.In order to inspect the phylogenetic relationship among Epimedium species,and to lay the technical foundation of molecular markers on Epimedium,this research has optimized the DNA extraction technique for Epimedium and selected appropriate primers for AFLP,built up DNA fingerprint diagrams of Epimedium species.This study established the DNA fingerprints of 46 Epimedium species(38 from China,8 from the Mediterranean and Japan etc.) with Vancouveria hexandra being out group and using 8 of 272 pairs of primer combinations.The results indicate that the species of genus Epimedium could be sorted into two groups:subgenus Rhizophyllum(E.pinnatum ssp.pinnatum from Caucasus;E.perralderianum from Algeria) and subgenus Epimedium.Within subgenus Epimedium,E.koreanum(from Korea and Japan), E.trifoliolatobinatum,E.diphyllum and E.sempervirens(section Macroceras) were in a clade and all chinese species were in another clade(section Diphyllon) approximately.The results also pointed that AFLP is good at differentiating the Epimedium species,especially the species similar in appearance, such as E.sagittatum(series Brachycerae) and E.myrianthum(series Brachycerae);E.brachyrrhizum (series Dolichocerae) and E.leptorrhizum(series Dolichocerae) et al..The genetic background is so abundant that the relationship among them needed further discussion with some other DNA technique. Molecular markers together with morphological method could resovle the authentication and classification within the genus Epimedium.