Molecular markers based on chloroplast and nuclear ribosomal DNA regions which distinguish Korean-specific ecotypes of the medicinal plant Cudrania tricuspidata Bureau

Cudrania tricuspidata Bureau is a widely-used, medicinal, perennial and woody plant. Obtaining information about the genetic diversity of plant populations is highly important with regard toconservation and germplasm utilization. Although C. tricuspidata is an important medicinal plant species registered in South Korea, no molecular markers are currently available to distinguish Korean-specific ecotypes from other ecotypes from different countries. In this study, we developed single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers derived from the chloroplast and nuclear genomic sequences, which serve to to identify distinct Koreanspecific ecotypes of C. tricuspidata via amplification refractory mutation system (ARMS)-PCR and high resolution melting (HRM) curve analyses. We performed molecular authentication of twelve C. tricuspidata ecotypes from different regions using DNA sequences in the maturaseK (MatK) chloroplast intergenic region and nuclear ribosomal DNA internal transcribed spacer (ITS) regions. The SNP markers developed in this study are useful for rapidly identifying specific C. tricuspidata ecotypes from different regions.