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

Abstract

Genetic and chemical diff erences 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 amplifi ed 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%), g-terpinene (5-16%), limonene (3-12%) and a-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 diff erences. The correlation between the genetic diversity based on molecular marker patterns and the volatile chemical analysis of the present study was signifi cant (Pearson's r < 0.44, p ª 0.01).

Low genetic diversity and significant structuring in the endangered Mentha cervina populations and its implications for conservation

“…Among various molecular tools, ISSRs (Inter-simple sequence repeats) have gained increasing interest because they have greater reliability and reproducibility of banding patterns when compared to RAPD (random amplified polymorphic DNA) primers (Culley and Wolfe, 2001), and at the same time, the cost of the analyses is relatively lower than that of some other markers such as AFLPs and microsatellites (Fang and Roose, 1997). Therefore, the recent use of ISSRs has been extensive in population genetics studies with wide applications in genetic diversity studies of species with conservation concerns (Esselman et al, 1999;Ge et al, 2005;McGlaughlin et al, 2002;Smith and Bateman, 2002;Xia et al, 2007), including Lamiaceae species (Liu et al, 2006;Mendes et al, 2009). ISSRs are especially useful in detecting diversity in closely related, or even clonal, individuals (Chen et al, 2006;Esselman et al, 1999;Han et al, 2007;Zietkiewicz et al, 1994).…”

Determination of genotoxic and antigenotoxic properties of essential oil from Ferula orientalis L. using Ames/Salmonella and E. coli WP2 bacterial test systems

“…Apiaceae (Umbelliferae) is one of the largest families of flowering plants, with about 455 genera and 3,750 species (Mendes et al, 2009;Pimenov and Leonov, 1993). This family is mostly herbaceous, and it can be found in northern temperate regions, in tropical highlands and in many places of the world (De Castro et al, 2009).…”