ABSTRACT
Objective To study the genetic diversity of different geographical populations of Houttuynia cordata in China.Methods The genetic diversity of 15 geographical populations of H.cordata from 13 provinces in China was estimated using amplified fragment length polymorphism(AFLP) markers.The data of amplified bands were analyzed by the software POPGENE and MEGA.Results The ten AFLP primers employed produced a total of 110 discernable and reproduceable amplified fragments.The percentage of polymorphic bands within different populations was 70.51%.Genetic diversity analysis showed that effective number of alleles(Ne) was 1.210,Nei′s gene diversity(H) was 0.119,and Shannon′s genetic diversity index(I) was 0.186.The coefficient of genetic distance was 0.008 9—0.181 8 among populations.A UPGMA dendrogram based on Nei′s(1972) genetic distance visualized that the 15 populations were grouped into three different clusters,Emei population was one individual cluster group and the other populations were grouped into two different clusters corresponding to the different geographical areas.Conclusion The genetic diversity within different geographical populations of H.cordata in China is plentiful.