Genetic diversity of Lippia origanoides Kunth. in natural populations using ISSR markers

ABSTRACT Lippia origanoides Kunth. is a medicinal plant that is widely available in the Northeast region of Brazil and is known as “alecrim-d’angola”. However, there is no information available on the genetic variability of this species in the region. Thus, the current study was aimed to analyze the genetic diversity and structuring of L. origanoides populations occurring in the states of Bahia and Pernambuco, Brazil, using Inter-Simple Sequence Repeat (ISSR) molecular markers. The evaluated Nei’s diversity index of the populations varied from 0.162 to 0.237, and the Shannon diversity index varied from 0.247 to 0.350. In molecular variance (AMOVA) analysis, a variation of 31% was observed among the populations, which denotes a high interpopulation structuring. The structure analysis and dendrogram indicated the possibility of classifying the 18 populations into four groups. As their genetic structure is extremely high, it is important to collect L. origanoides germplasm, including as many populations as possible. Since the region of Chapada Diamantina holds the most diverse populations of L. origanoides germplasm, it is a priority area to obtain the germplasm.