earticle

영어

Dipsaci Radix was described as the roots of Dipsacus asperoides in the Korean pharmacopoeia, namely Sok-dan. In Korea, a herbaceous plant species Dipsacus japonicus belong to the same genus also distributed. Unfortunately, due to the morphological similarity of the areal parts and dried root, the accurate identification of these two plant is very difficult depending on the morphological features. Therefore, we introduced the genetic tools to distinguish D. asperoides and D. japonicus at the species levels based on the nuclear ribosomal RNA gene (nrDNA) internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) region sequences. In comparison of ITS2 sequences using 7 and 2 samples of D. asperoides and D. japonicus, respectively, we identified seven distinct species-specific single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), namely marker nucleotides, enough to discriminate both two plant species. Furthermore, these two species were clearly classified into distinct two group depending on species in the phylogenetic analysis of 7 Dipsacus species. These results indicate that the sequence variability and species-specific nucleotide substitutions of ITS2 region are useful genetic marker for identifying authentic Dispsaci Radix.