ABSTRACT
Apocynum venetum LINN. is an important Chinese crude drug, and its sibling species A. pictum SCHRENK is a confusable herb which is similar to it. The purpose of this study is to develop DNA molecular markers to distinguish A. venetum from A. pictum through the combinative technologies of bulked segregate analysis (BSA) and randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD). Two putative markers B08-407 and B03-1368 specific for A. venetum were identified and sequenced. Based on the sequence information, two pairs of primers were designed and synthesized for sequence characterized amplified region (SCAR) markers. But only one primer pair, B03-1368, produced a clear SCAR band in all samples of A. venetum and not in A. pictum. This SCAR marker was found useful for rapid identification of A. venetum from A. pictum.
