322 Kor. J. Hort. Sci. Technol. 31(3), June 2013 Kor. J. Hort. Sci. Technol. 31(3):322-327, 2013 DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.7235/hort.2013.12210 Analysis of Genetic Variability Using RAPD Markers in Paeonia spp. Grown in Korea Mi Young Lim 1,2 , Sonali Jana 3 , Iyyakkannu Sivanesan 2 , Hyun Rho Park 4 , Ji Hyun Hwang 5 , Young Hoon Park 5 , and Byoung Ryong Jeong 1,2,3* 1 Division of Applied Life Science (BK21 Program), Graduate School, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju 660-701, Korea 2 Institute of Agriculture & Life Science, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju 660-701, Korea 3 Research Institute of Life Science, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju 660-701, Korea 4 Institute for Natural Products, Gyeongsangbuk-do Agricultural Research & Extension Services, Uiseong 769-803, Korea 5 Department of Horticultural Bioscience, Pusan National University, Miryang 627-706, Korea Abstract. The genetic diversity and phylogenetic relationships of eleven herbaceous peonies grown in Korea were analyzed by random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD). Twenty-four decamer RAPD primers were used in a comparative analysis of these Korean peony species. Of the 142 total RAPD fragments amplified, 124 (87.3%) were found to be polymorphic. The remaining 18 fragments were found to be monomorphic (12.7%) shared by individuals of all 11 peony species. Cluster analysis based on the presence or absence of bands was performed by Jaccard’s similarity coefficient, based on Unweighted Pair Group Method with Arithmetic Averages. Genetic similarity range was 0.39 to 0.90 with a mean of 0.64. This study offered a rapid and reliable method for the estimation of variability among different peony species which could be utilized by the breeders for further improvement of the local peony species. Also, the results propose that the RAPD marker technique is a useful tool for evaluation of genetic diversity and relationship amongst different peony species. Additional key words: cluster analysis, genetic diversity, peony, polymerase chain reaction, primers *Corresponding author: brjeong@gmail.com ※ Received 8 November 2012; Revised 25 January 2013; Accepted 30 January 2013. This research was supported by Technology Development Program for Agriculture and Forestry, Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Republic of Korea (Project No. 109096-5). Mi Young Lim was supported by a scholarship from the BK21 program, the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development, Korea. Introduction Peonies are popular not only as garden flowers, potted flowers, and cut flowers, but also as medicinal plants. The Paeoniaceae family embraces the genus Paeonia, including 33 species which are further divided into herbs and trees (Barzilay et al., 2002). Species in this genus are hardy perennials and ornamental plants that are popular as beautiful garden peonies. Peony species are widespread over a range of the Northern hemisphere, including Morocco, Spain, the mountainous regions of Europe, and the Mediterranean through the Caucasus mountains to Central Asia, China, Japan, and the Western United states (Rogers, 1995). The herbaceous peony is one of New Zealand’s more recent export cut flowers (Fulton et al., 2001). Herbaceous peony (Paeonia lactiflora Pallas) has been cultivated in China for more than 3,900 years (Wang and Zhang, 2005). Currently, herbaceous peonies are back in fashion, since they are easy to nurture and also due to their diverse flower forms and colors. Peony also holds its place in Korean traditional medicine, since roots are very important for medicinal purposes (WHO, 1998). The root of P. lactiflora is mainly used for the treatment of muscular spasm, chest pains, diarrhea, blood and liver disorders, and as a general analgesic (Guo et al., 2006). The utilization of plant genetic resources requires an acquaintance with the quantity of genetic variation that exists among the species (Vaughan, 1994). The random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) fingerprinting method uses decamer (10 nucleotide length) primers for polymerase chain reaction amplification (PCR) of random segments of genomic DNA to analyze genetic diversity and phylogeny. The RAPD technique is highly favored as no prior knowledge on the genotype is required. Moreover, conclusions derived by RAPD are parallel to those of other methods, such as amplified fragment