Discovery of an Originally Wild Tree of Eucommia ulmoides Oliver by AFLP Fingerprinting

Eucommia ulmoides Oliver is a traditional medicinal plant species endemic to China.At present, although it is widely cultivated,wild E.ulmoides is extremely rare and in brink of extinction.During our recently extensive molecular investigation in genetic diversity and population structure of E.ulmoides using AFLPs,a male plant over 200 years old(Sample code: SNJ5) in Shennongjia National Nature Reserve was found to have a unique AFLP fingerprint which was significantly different from that of other 582 cultivated individuals of 10-52 years old.Of the total 191 polymorphic bands,44 bands were high frequency dominant allele bands(HFDAB,the bands that were absent only in 1-3 individuals of the total 583 samples).SNJ5 was lack of 23 HFDABs in which 12 HFDABs were absent in SNJ5 only.It was significantly different from that of other 582 cultivated individuals(p<0.05).Furthermore,SNJ5 had a private band(217 bp band in E+ACG/M+CTG primer combination).We suspect that this old E. ulmoides tree is likely to be the originally wild survivor.An immediate protection action is needed to secure this very important germplasm resource.