ABSTRACT
Objective To identify nine species of Dendrobium Sw. by inter-simple sequence repeats-polymerase chain reaction (ISSR-PCR) method and to investigate the difference among the species of Dendrobium Sw. at DNA molecular level. Methods Ten primers constituted by simple sequence repeats (SSR) were tested for PCR and sepharose electrophoresis of the nine species. Results Seven of the ten primers amplified polymorphic bands. The number of polymorphic band positions of each primer ranged from 7 to 14, and the size of fragments ranged from 220 to 1 260 bp. The amplification patterns of two primers, namely UBC-807 and UBC-864, were higher in terms of polymorphic and amplified band ratio. Each of them was able to distinguish all the examined species. Conclusion ISSR-PCR provides a quick, reliable molecular marker technique for identification of different species of Dendrobium Sw.