Development of a molecular marker based on chloroplast gene for specific identification of Korean Hibiscus (Hibiscus syriacus ‘Simbaek’)

Due to the rise in substitution and adulteration of herbal products, as well as the lack of genetic information on Hibiscus plants, more molecular markers are needed to understand the genetic diversity and avoid their misidentification. There are many allelic variants of the functional genes in Hibiscus and other plants, which control their respective phenotypes and other characteristics. Identifying alleles of the desired trait by determining diversification through gene-typing allele-specific markers for authentication is, therefore, a potent strategy. The purpose of this study was to use insertion/deletion (InDel) markers to identify Hibiscus syriacus cultivars. We developed a novel InDel marker for Korean Hibiscus ‘Simbaek’, based on the trnL-F region of the chloroplast gene. Through this InDel site, a modified specific primer pair and a novel multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) system were developed for specific identification of the Korean Hibiscus Simbaek cultivar. The molecular markers developed in this study were highly specific and accurately authenticated as Simbaek from the five main cultivars of H. syriacus. Taken together, the described method is a potential tool for the identification and selection of germplasm resource of Simbaek cultivar. Graphical Abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.].