Assessment of genetic stability in tissue-cultured products and seedlings of Saussurea involucrata by RAPD and ISSR markers.

To control the genetic quality during the whole process of tissue culture of the traditional Chinese medicinal plant, Saussurea involucrate Kar. et Kir., DNA polymorphisms and genetic variations were investigated using randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and inter-simple sequence repeats (ISSR) markers. The genetic stability/variation in tissue-cultured products, including three calli, three adventitious shoots, regenerated plantlets and 2 year-old regenerated plantlets cultivated in the planting base in Tianshan Mountain, were assessed compared with 1 year-old and 2 year-old seedlings cultivated in the same planting base using aseptic seedlings as reference. Apparent genetic variation was detected in the 11 type of plant materials. The percentages of polymorphic bands in the RAPD and ISSR analysis were, respectively, 35% and 33%. Cluster analysis indicated that the genetic similarity values calculated on the basis of RAPD and ISSR data among the 11 type of plant materials were respectively ranged from 0.823 to 0.995 with a mean of 0.878 and 0.825 to 0.974 with a mean of 0.885, which classified the samples into three groups. The similarity coefficient also revealed that differences among three calli were not remarkable by both RAPD and ISSR analysis, and only chemical components and growth properties needed consideration in the screening of callus used for the next redifferentiation studies. But there are remarkable differences among three adventitious shoots analyzed by ISSR markers. Therefore, RAPD and ISSR markers are efficient tools in genetic variation assessment and quality control in plant tissue culture process.