ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To discuss the genetic diversity of Coptis omeiensis.</p><p><b>METHOD</b>The genetic diversity of 110 individuals from 10 populations was analyzed by RAPD.</p><p><b>RESULT</b>14 primers were selected to produce highly reproducible RAPD bands. Among 132 amplified bands, 98 showed polymorphism, the percentage of polymorphic bands reached to 74.24%. Nei's gene diversity index (H) was 0.2863, Shannon's information index (I) was 0.3624, G(st) was 0.2305. The genetic distance coefficient and the similarity were 0.1931-0.5245 and 0.5016-0.8843, respectively.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>There exists a held high genetic diversity in C. omeiensis and the majority of genetic variation occurs in the populations. By cluster analysis, the geographical distribution is very obvious. The RAPD marker can be used for the analysis of the genetic diversity and genetic variation of C. omeiensis.</p>