Plant Physiol, March 2003, Vol. 131, pp. 1294-1301
Genetic Diversity of Eurycoma longifolia Inferred
from Single Nucleotide
Polymorphisms1,[w]
Asiah
Osman,
Barbara
Jordan,2
Philip A.
Lessard,
Norwati
Muhammad,
M.
Rosli
Haron,
Norifiza Mat
Riffin,
Anthony J.
Sinskey,
ChoKyun
Rha,* and
David E.
Housman
Malaysia-MIT Biotechnology Partnership Programme (A.O., B.J.,
P.A.L., N.M., M.R.H., N.M.R., A.J.S., C.R., D.E.H.), Center for Cancer
Research (A.O., B.J., D.E.H.), Department of Biology (P.A.L., A.J.S.),
and Biomaterials Science and Engineering Laboratory (C.R.),
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue,
Cambridge Massachusetts 02139; and Forest Research Institute of
Malaysia, Kepong, 52109 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (A.O., N.M., M.R.H.,
N.M.R.)
Eurycoma longifolia Jack. is a treelet that grows in
the forests of Southeast Asia and is widely used throughout the region because of its reported medicinal properties. Widespread harvesting of
wild-grown trees has led to rapid thinning of natural populations, causing a potential decrease in genetic diversity among
E. longifolia. Suitable genetic markers
would be very useful for propagation and breeding programs to support
conservation of this species, although no such markers currently exist.
To meet this need, we have applied a genome complexity reduction
strategy to identify a series of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs)
within the genomes of several E.
longifolia accessions. We have found that the occurrence
of these SNPs reflects the geographic origins of individual plants and
can distinguish different natural populations. This work demonstrates
the rapid development of molecular genetic markers in species for which
little or no genomic sequence information is available. The SNP markers
that we have developed in this study will also be useful for
identifying genetic fingerprints that correlate with other properties
of E. longifolia, such as high regenerability or the appearance of bioactive metabolites.
1
This work was supported by the Government of
Malaysia and the Malaysia-Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Biotechnology Partnership Program.
2
Genomics Collaborative, Inc., 99 Erie Street, Cambridge,
MA 02139.
[w]
The online version of this article contains Web-only
data. The supplemental material is available at
www.plantphysiol.org.
*
Corresponding author; e-mail ckrha{at}mit.edu; fax
617-253- 6358.
© 2003 American Society of Plant Biologists
