Analysis of genetic relationships of Ardisia spp. using RAPD markers

Three Ardisia species, A. pusilla, A. japonica, and A. cranata, are native to the southern part of Korea, Japan, and China, and have been marketed as a berry-bearing ornamental plant. The genetic relationships among these three native Ardisia plants collected from various locations in Korea as well as commercially available Ardisia of unknown origin was investigated by analysis of randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers. Arbitrary 10-mer oligonucleotide and 12-mer oligonucleotide primers generated a total of 78 polymorphic bands ranging from 400 by to 2,000 bp. Members of each Ardisia species were clustered together when a dendrogram, was constructed using a squared euclidean distance of 10.0. A. pusilla was more closely associated with A. japonica than A. crenata. A. japonica currently marketed in floral and nursery trades were most closely related to a native plant from Jindo, Korea. A. crenata was divided into two or three groups based on geographical origin. A. crenata plants on the market in Korea are related to those from Florida, USA, which were originally started from seeds imported from China. Molecular markers generated by RAPD analysis were successfully used to characterize genetic relationships among three species of the genus Ardisia and to characterize different accessions.