RIBOSOMAL DNA ITS SEQUENCE ANALYSES OF CNIDIUM MONNIERI FROM DIFFERENT GEOGRAPHICAL ORIGIN IN CHINA

AIM：To study the correlation between ITS sequence variation of Cnidium monnieri and geographical distribution and chemo-type of the plant. METHODS: Two pairs of primers Pf+Pb and P5.8S ITS1+P5.8S ITS2 were designed. The PCR products were purified and sequenced by silver staining DNA sequencing technique and ABI 310. RESULTS: Complete sequcnce of ITS and 5.8S rDNA, and partial sequence of 18S rDNA and 26S rDNA of Cnidium monnieri were obtained. They totaled about 700 bp. The sequences of ITS-1 and ITS-2 ranged from 210 bp to 217 bp and 219 bp to 224 bp; respectively. Pairwese sequence divergences of the samples ranged from 0% to 1.93% in ITS-1, and from 0.46% to 2.34% in ITS-2. The ITS-1 is more conservative. Phylogenetic tree based on ITS-2 sequence data (225 aligned sites) indicated that the Harbin samples, Hengshui and Dezhou samples, and Zhengzhou and Gaochun samples clustered separately. CONCLUSION: The sequence variation of ITS-2 is correlated to latitude distribution of Cnidium monnieri in China. Further studies are needed to clarify the relation between ITS sequence variation and chemo-type of Cnidium monnieri.