Abstract
Great burdock (Arctium lappa L.) of the Compositae has economic importance in East Asian countries. In Taiwan, major cultivated areas are located in Gueilai Township, Pingtung County and Jiali Township, Tainan County. The present work was undertaken with two objectives of determining intraspecific genetic variations and studying the population dynamics of A. lappa L. In total, 23 individuals were collected from Gueilai (n = 15) and Jiali (n = 8). Chloroplast trnL-trnF intergenic spacer (IGS) and nuclear ribosomal DNA internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequences were subcloned and sequenced. Length variations among IGS sequences ranged from 805 to 808 bp and among ITS sequences ranged from 360 to 362 bp. Intraspecific genetic distances within IGS sequences ranged from 0 to 0.01 and within ITS sequences ranged from 0 to 0.023, which were lower than interspecific distances. All IGS and ITS sequences being separately scattered on each of the neighbor-joining trees with insignificant genetic differentiation indices (p > 0.05) suggested that both samples shared a recent common ancestor. Minimum spanning trees, Tajima’s and Fu’s parameters, and mismatch distributions implied that A. lappa L. had experienced a historical population expansion. Key words: Compositae, Gueilai, Jiali, genetic distance, population expansion.
Highlights
Great burdock (Arctium lappa L.), an herb belonging to the Compositae, is mainly cultivated in Orient including Taiwan, China, Japan, South Korea, and a few other Southeast Asian countries
In Taiwan, major cultivated areas are located in Gueilai Township, Pingtung County and Jiali Township, Tainan County
Intraspecific genetic distances within intergenic spacer (IGS) sequences ranged from 0 to 0.01 and within internal transcribed spacer (ITS) sequences ranged from 0 to 0.023, which were lower than interspecific distances
Summary
Great burdock (Arctium lappa L.), an herb belonging to the Compositae, is mainly cultivated in Orient including Taiwan, China, Japan, South Korea, and a few other Southeast Asian countries. The highest production area in Taiwan has shifted to Jiali Township, Tainan County, where over 70 ha are cultivated. Most of these products are exported to the Japanese market. Cultivation of great burdock strains on Taiwanese farms depends on introducing seeds from Japan every year These seed strains have several beneficial characters achieved by artificial selection including long roots, white stalks and root bark, and a short sowing time. Most consumers prefer the great burdock with longer roots (more than 70 cm long with a diameter of about 2 to 3 cm) and white root bark These strains are only distinguished by their morphological characters
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