Genetic diversity in Callicarpa kwangtungensis Chun. based on morphological, biochemical and ISSR markers

An evaluation of genetic variation and genetic structure of 17 wild populations of Callicarpa kwangtungensis in China were studied using morphological traits, biochemical and ISSR markers. The 17 accessions of C. kwangtungensis genotypes exhibited considerable variation for morphological characters, which plant height, ground diameter, leaf length, leaf width and leaf area were the main traits according to the principal coordinate analysis (PCA). High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) results show that poliumoside, forsythiaside B are higher than the criterion standard for Callicarpae caulis et folium in Chinese Pharmacopoeia. ISSR results revealed that the 20 selected primers generated a total of 217 clear and distinguishable bands fragments, 187 bands (85.69%) of which were polymorphic. There was a high level of inter-population genetic variability, relatively low genetic diversity within populations, which indicated the same trend by Gst (0.438). This was also confirmed by the limited gene flow among populations (Nm 0.642), which indicated the difficulty in genetic exchange among populations. Mantel test revealed a low association between the ISSR data and geographic position (r = 0.390), ISSR and morphological traits (0.283), and a weak correlation between ISSR and content of phytochemicals (0.078). Finally, a preliminary proposal for conservation and breeding of this germplasm was put forward based on these findings.