Molecular Characterization of Aromatic Species of the Genus Lippia from the Colombian Neotropics

The genus Lippia (Verbenaceae)includes about 200 species mainly distributed in the Neotropical region. In Colombia, situated in northern South America, Lippia origanoides, Lippia alba, Lippia citriodora and Lippia dulcis have the potential to become commercial crops because of their essentials oils. Nevertheless, these species, and the genus as a whole, have been poorly studied from the taxonomical and genetical points of view. We are carrying out molecular characterization of these four species in Colombia. Our aim is to study genetic structure in natural versus human-managed populations, which also differ in their mode of propagation (natural propagation versus human-induced clonal propagation, respectively). For doing this, we have carried out a pilot study to look for intra- and interspecific polymorphisms in four regions of the chloroplast DNA (cpDNA)(rps14-psaB, petA-psbE, trnL-trnF and trnL intron), the internal trasncribed spacer of the ribosomal DNA (ITS)and 50 ISSR loci. Here, we report the main results of this pilot study of DNA polymorphisms and discuss their utility for population genetic studies and future DNA bar-coding initiatives.