Abstract:

In order to provide molecular data for the germplasm resource study on Alpinia officinarum （A officina rum） Hance and to identify A. officinarum Hance from its adulterants, the rDNA internal transcribed spacer （ITS） sequences of A. officinarum Hance and its adulterants were determined and analyzed by means of polymerase chain reaction （PCR）. Wild and cultivated A. officinarum Hance collected in different areas, and three adulterants including A. japonica （Thunb.）, A. chinensis （ Retz. ） Rosc. and A. galanga （ L. ）, were used as samples. The results of sequence analysis indicate that   the intraspecies sequence homology of A. officinarum Hance is up to 100% ;   there exist heterotic sites in all samples of A. officinarum Hance, and the proportion of the two bases in heterotic sites in the sample from Guangxi is different from that in other samples;   there are 61 variable sites （including 60 informative sites） in the 812bp sequences among A. officinarum Hance and its adulterants, with a homology of 96.32% ;   11 sites in the ITS1 and ITS2 regions can be used to identify A. officinarum Hance and its adulterants due to the great difference of the sites in different samples; and   some further researches should be performed because the classification results of A. officinarum Hance and its adulterants based on DNA sequences do not totally accord with those based on morphologic characteristics.

Key words: Alpinia officinarum Hance, adulterant, rDNA internal transcribed spacer, sequence analysis, identification