ISHS Acta Horticulturae 675: III WOCMAP Congress on Medicinal and Aromatic Plants - Volume 1: Bioprospecting and Ethnopharmacology
INVESTIGATION OF HELLEBORUS GENUS (RANUNCULACEAE) USING RAPD MARKERS AS AN AID TO TAXONOMIC DISCRIMINATION |
| Authors: | G. Fico, O. Servettaz, E. Caporali, F. Tomè, E. Agradi |
| Keywords: | Helleborus bocconei, Helleborus niger, Helleborus odorus, Helleborus viridis, molecular markers |
| Abstract:
The RAPD technique was used to investigate the taxonomic position of some Helleborus species of Italian flora. The taxonomy of the genus is rather complicated due to the variability of the diacritic characters and to the presence of transitional forms. At present, some discrepancies exist among the authors about the systematic position of species of Helleborus characterised by green flowers. Because of this taxonomical uncertainty, it appears of interest to explore the potential of some molecular markers as a diagnostic feature of these entities. In this study, we used RAPD markers to characterise eight populations of Helleborus growing in central and northern Italy, which belong to the species H. bocconei, H. viridis, and H. odorus (characterised by green flowers) and H. niger (white flowers). The RAPD and cluster analyses enabled the taxonomic position of the critical entities to be clarified in favour of the classification made by Pignatti: the populations from northeastern Italy (attributed to H. odorus) are in fact clearly differentiated from those collected in Piemont and Lombardy and attributed to H. viridis. | |
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