Studies On Geographical Variation And Provenance Selection Of Glycyrrhiza Uralensis Fisch

Glycyrrhiza uralensis Fisch is one of the most important medicinal plants in northern China and it also possesses significant value in ecological protection. In the last several years, with the wild resources of G.uralensis decreasing more and more seriously, the research on artificial cultivation gradually prevailed. The studies on geographical variation and provenance selection of G.uralensis have important significance not only for wild G.uralensis resources protection, but also for artificial cultivating practice. On the basis of documentation in existence, by the methods of field investigation, field experiment and chemical analysis in laboratory, from the aspect of wild geographical population and provenance experiment, the systematic studies were carried out on the G.uralensis variation of morphology, DNA polymorphic, growth characteristic, ecophysiological characteristic, medicinal materials yield and effective ingredient content, the mechanism of G.uralensis geographical variation was also involved. The provenance regionalization of G.uralensis in our country was primarily completed; the best provenance was primarily selected according to society demanding.The study results on geographical variation of wild G.uralensis populations show that variations of up-ground parts, fruits and seed morphological characteristics reach significant level. There are abundant genetic variations in G.uralensis populations on the basis of RAPD analyzing result; the genetic variations among populations are higher than those among individuals in the populations; the genetic variations in Xinjiang region are most abundant, those in northwestern region are secondary and in northeastern region are smallest. The comprehensive analyzing results show that geographical variations of wild population are related with the climatic condition in natural distributive area. In addition, the variations of glycyrrhizinic acid content are also effected by soil nutrient content.The study results on geographical variation of G.uralensis provenance show that obvious geographical variations occur in the follow aspects as growth characteristics, biomass, glycyrrhizinic acid content and ecophysiological characteristics. The analyzing results on heritability and genetic correlation show that biomass of G.uralensis underground part and glycyrrhizinic acid content are controlled by gene, general heritabiliy is 0.6632 and 0.7751 respectively, the results also show that biomass of G.uralensis underground part and glycyrrhizinic acid content possess high geneticimprovement potential, but these two indicators are negative related with each other on the genetic point of view. The comprehensive analyzing results show that geographical variations of G.uralensis provenance are related with the climatic conditions in provenance site. To some extent, the geographical variations of growth characteristics and biomass due to the variation of light energy transformation efficiency and those of glycyrrhizinic acid content are as result of metabolism intensity.According to the basic principles of provenance regionalization and on the basis of cluster analyzing results on wild geographical populations, RAPD, provenance and climatic conditions in provenance sites, the whole distributive area of G.uralensis including 36 provenance sites is divided into 3 provenance regions and 9 provenance sub-regions. These three provenance regions are Xinjiang provenance region, Western provenance region and Eastern provenance region and nine sub-regions are Qierqisi river provenance sub-region, Zhunger basin land provenance sub-region, Tianshan mountain provenance sub-region, Hexi corridor provenance sub-region, Yellow soil highland provenance sub-region, Maowusu sands provenance sub-region, Kubuqi sands provenance sub-region, Kerqin sands provenance sub-region and Northeastern plain provenance sub-region.According to society demanding, the provenances are evaluated by applying glycyrrhizinic acid content and finally glycyrrhizinic acid yield as comprehensive i...