Picrorhiza kurroa is a medicinal perennial herb of economic importance due to its hepatoprotective properties mainly accounted by picroside I and picroside II. To fulfill the current demand of the market indiscriminate collection from its natural habitat pose a great threat to this endangered species. To strategize the conservation of natural populations, a set of 20 highly informative novel genic SSR markers were identified. The utility of these makers was successfully tested for the genetic diversity characterization of P. kurroa populations (n = 28) from three geographical locations. These markers produced 136 alleles (average of 6.8) with mean observed heterozygosity, expected heterozygosity, Shannon’s information index, and PIC value of 0.971, 0.798, 1.681, and 0.737 respectively, revealing a higher extent of genetic diversity in P. kurroa. Further, clustering of all the individuals according to their geographical locations indicates at a spatial population structure in P. kurroa. The current study suggests that informative SSR makers identified here can be potentially used for diversity characterization targeting wider geographical locations for selection of elite/quality genotypes for commercial cultivation and genetic rescue of this endangered species.

中文翻译：

---

开发信息性SSR标记，用于Picrorhiza kurroa遗传多样性分析

Picrorhiza kurroa是一种具有多年生经济意义的药用多年生草本植物，因为它的保肝作用主要由苦味苷I和苦味苷II引起。为了满足市场的当前需求，从其自然栖息地中随意收集的资源对该濒危物种构成了巨大威胁。为了制定策略保护自然种群，我们确定了20种高度信息化的新颖基因SSR标记。这些制造商的实用程序已成功测试了库尔罗亚疟原虫的遗传多样性特征来自三个地理位置的人口（n = 28）。这些标记产生了136个等位基因（平均6.8），其平均观察到的杂合性，预期的杂合性，Shannon信息指数和PIC值分别为0.971、0.798、1.681和0.737，这揭示了库氏假单胞菌的遗传多样性程度更高。此外，根据所有个体的地理位置进行聚类表明在库氏疟原虫中的空间种群结构。当前的研究表明，这里鉴定出的信息丰富的SSR标记可潜在地用于针对更广泛地理位置的多样性表征，以选择精英/优质基因型进行商业种植和对该濒危物种的基因拯救。