Chaerophyllum azoricum Trel. grown in the Azores archipelago, Portugal: evaluation of the genetic diversity using molecular markers and comparison with volatile oils profiles

Abstract

AbstractGenetic and chemical differences of nine individuals of Chaerophyllum azoricum were studied to determine whether molecular characters and volatile components could be used as taxonomical markers and to examine the correlation between them. Plant material was analysed by random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR) using 21 and 19 arbitrary primers, respectively, generating 320 RAPD and 310 ISSR markers. The volatiles were isolated from each individual by distillation–extraction and analysed by gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS). Terpinolene (20–67%) was the main component of the volatile fraction isolated from the aerial parts of C. azoricum. Individuals harvested on São Jorge Island also had myristicin (4–23%), γ‐terpinene (5–16%), limonene (3–12%) and α‐zingiberene (2–12%) as the main components, whereas individuals collected on Flores Island had acorenone B (12–17%), myristicin (8–9%) and sabinene (4–9%) as the other dominant components. Separate cluster analyses based on molecular markers and on the chemical composition of the volatile fraction grouped, in both cases, the nine accessions in two main groups but with some subclustering differences. The correlation between the genetic diversity based on molecular marker patterns and the volatile chemical analysis of the present study was significant (Pearson's r < 0.44, p ∼ 0.01). Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.