Abstract
Sinopodophyllum hexandrum is an important medicinal plant whose genetic diversity must be conserved because it is endangered. The Qinling Mts. are a S. hexandrum distribution area that has unique environmental features that highly affect the evolution of the species. To provide the reference data for evolutionary and conservation studies, the genetic diversity and population structure of S. hexandrum in its overall natural distribution areas in the Qinling Mts. were investigated through inter-simple sequence repeats analysis of 32 natural populations. The 11 selected primers generated a total of 135 polymorphic bands. S. hexandrum genetic diversity was low within populations (average He = 0.0621), but higher at the species level (He = 0.1434). Clear structure and high genetic differentiation among populations were detected by using the unweighted pair group method for arithmetic averages, principle coordinate analysis and Bayesian clustering. The clustering approaches supported a division of the 32 populations into three major groups, for which analysis of molecular variance confirmed significant variation (63.27%) among populations. The genetic differentiation may have been attributed to the limited gene flow (Nm = 0.3587) in the species. Isolation by distance among populations was determined by comparing genetic distance versus geographic distance by using the Mantel test. Result was insignificant (r = 0.212, P = 0.287) at 0.05, showing that their spatial pattern and geographic locations are not correlated. Given the low within-population genetic diversity, high differentiation among populations and the increasing anthropogenic pressure on the species, in situ conservation measures were recommended to preserve S. hexandrum in Qinling Mts., and other populations must be sampled to retain as much genetic diversity of the species to achieve ex situ preservation as a supplement to in situ conservation.
Highlights
Sinopodophyllum hexandrum (Royle) Ying, family Berberidaceae, the only species of this genus in China, commonly known as Himalayan mayapple, is an endangered and medicinal perennial herb native to the Himalayan regions at elevations ranging from 2 700 m to 4 500 m [1,2,3,4]
The percentage of polymorphism ranged from 42.86% (UBC834) to 68.97% (UBC900), indicating that the selected primers are highly polymorphic across S. hexandrum populations
Genetic diversity of S. hexandrum in Qinling Mts The inter-simple sequence repeats (ISSR) markers developed in this study effectively revealed low genetic diversity within the S. hexandrum populations sampled in Qinling Mts
Summary
Sinopodophyllum hexandrum (Royle) Ying, family Berberidaceae, the only species of this genus in China, commonly known as Himalayan mayapple, is an endangered and medicinal perennial herb native to the Himalayan regions at elevations ranging from 2 700 m to 4 500 m [1,2,3,4]. Plants provide us with many important medicaments, including anticancer and antiinfective agents [5], and traditional Chinese medicine has contributed to identifying these substances [6]. S. hexandrum is a traditional Chinese medicine that has been used in folk medicine [7]. The destructive harvest of these plants added S. hexandrum to the endangered species list of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and
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