Roseroot (Rhodiola rosea L.), an adaptogenic herb, has received increased attention in recent years. The genetic diversity of roseroot was studied with simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers, which have not been widely used so far | Turkish Journal of Biology Turk J Biol (2013) 37: 655-660 © TÜBİTAK doi: Research Article Genetic diversity of golden root (Rhodiola rosea L.) in northern Norway based on recently developed SSR markers 1, 2 1 2 1 Zsuzsanna GYÖRGY *, Erling FJELLDAL , Anna SZABÓ , Paul Eric ASPHOLM , Andrzej PEDRYC 1 Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Corvinus University of Budapest, Budapest, Hungary 2 Bioforsk, Norwegian Institute for Agriculture and Environmental Research, Soil and Environment Division, Svanhovd, Norway Received: Accepted: Published Online: Printed: Abstract: Roseroot (Rhodiola rosea L.), an adaptogenic herb, has received increased attention in recent years. The genetic diversity of roseroot was studied with simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers, which have not been widely used so far. Plants were collected in Finnmark County, Norway, from 10 habitats. Eight recently developed microsatellite (SSR) markers were used to assess genetic diversity. However, only 4 SSR markers were informative during this study. The primer pairs for these 4 SSR markers produced 20 fragments with an average of 5 putative alleles per locus. Observed heterozygosity was at each locus, whereas expected heterozygosity ranged from to . The generated unrooted dendrogram based on genetic distances calculated from the results confirms that genetic diversity exists between the populations; the more distant they are from each other, the higher the genetic difference is. Key words: Rhodiola rosea, molecular markers, simple sequence repeat, genetic diversity 1. Introduction Rhodiola rosea, commonly known as golden root or roseroot, is a traditional adaptogenic medicinal plant. Scandinavian, East European, and Asian peoples have used it for centuries as a general immune system stimulant. Roseroot belongs to the family Crassulaceae. It is a herbaceous plant with a .
