Genetic diversity analysis among and within populations of Pogostemon cablin from China with ISSR and SRAP markers

The diversity and genetic relationship among and within 16 populations of Pogostemon cablin from China were analyzed using ISSR and SRAP markers. High percentage of polymorphism observed by these two markers indicated a high level of genetic diversity existed among P. cablin populations. The percentage of polymorphic bands revealed by these two markers showed genetic variations were much higher between populations of P. cablin than within. The UPGMA clustering results using ISSR, SRAP or ISSR + SRAP combination showed most accessions from the same or adjacent regions were classified together. However, cluster results based on the absolute contents of patchouli alcohol and pogostone did not keep in good accordance with their geographic distributions, which revealed that the forming of patchouli alcohol and pogostone were relevant to the cultivation conditions except for genetic factors and environmental conditions. Finally, an appropriate strategy for conserving the patchouli germplasm was proposed.