ISSR analysis reveals high intraspecific variation in Rauvolfia serpentina L. – A high value medicinal plant Padmesh Pandaram Pillai a, * , Jayakumari Sanakan Sajan a , Kuttapetty Manikantan Menon a , Kuttanappilly Sudhakara Panicker Jayakumar a , Apian Subramoniam b a Biotechnology & Bioinformatics Division, Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute, Palode, Thiruvananthapuram 695562, Kerala, India b Phytochemistry and Phytopharmacology Division, Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute, Palode, Thiruvananthapuram 695562, Kerala, India article info Article history: Received 30 March 2011 Accepted 22 October 2011 Available online 18 November 2011 Keywords: Molecular markers Biodiversity Western Ghats abstract Rauvolfia serpentina L. is a high value medicinal plant having wide distribution in the tropics as well as other parts of the world. Thirteen accessions of Rauvolfia collected from different locations in the Western Ghat region of the peninsular India were analyzed for genetic variation using 15 ISSR primers. The 91 polymorphic amplicons generated were statistically analyzed using WinDist and PopGene software to calculate various diversity indices. Contrary to the general concept of low genetic variation associated with inbreeders, R. serpentina exhibits high genetic diversity as the similarity index value based on Nei and Li’s similarity coefficient ranges from 0.44 to 0.92 with mean value of 0.70. This is supported by other diversity parameters like Degree of genetic differentiation (G st ), Gene flow (Nm), Nei’s gene diversity (h) and Shannon index of genetic diversity (I). Cluster analysis showed characteristic grouping which is not in accordance with their geograph- ical affiliation. The result indicates that ISSR markers are sufficiently informative in assessing genetic diversity across wild accessions of R. serpentina. The high genetic diversity observed in this otherwise self-pollinated plant entails the need for evolving effective ex-situ strategy for long-term conservation of this medicinal herb. Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Rauvolfia serpentina L. is an important medicinal herb belonging to the family Apocynaceae, with wide distribution in the tropics of the world including the Himalayas, the Indian peninsula, and other South-east Asian countries (Roy et al., 1994). In India, it grows wild in many regions across the country (Ghani, 1998). R. serpentina is threatened in India due to over exploitation of natural resources for commercial purposes (Gupta, 1989). Enrichment of the dwindling population through seed propagation is challenged by poor seed viability and very low germination percentages of 25–50%, which may be ascribed largely to the presence of cinnamic acid derivatives in the seeds (Mitra, 1976). As such, very little is known about the genetic stability of R. serpentina and this study aims to use ISSR markers to estimate genetic variation in the natural pop- ulations of R. serpentina. * Corresponding author. Plant molecular biology lab, Biotechnology and Bioinformatics Division, Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute, Palode, Thiruvananthapuram 695562, Kerala, India. Fax: þ91 472 2869646. E-mail address: padmeshpad@rediffmail.com (P.P. Pillai). Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Biochemical Systematics and Ecology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/biochemsyseco 0305-1978/$ – see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.bse.2011.10.019 Biochemical Systematics and Ecology 40 (2012) 192–197