Genetic diversity and relationship among the accessions of cultivated types of Perilla frutescens and their weedy types were studied with 11 microsatellite markers. A total of 101 alleles were detected with an average allele number of 9.2 per locus among 70 Perilla accessions. Number of alleles per locus ranged from two for KWPE-39 to 21 for KWPE-53 and gene diversity for each locus was varied from 0.479 to 0.918 with an average of 0.715. The average gene diversity value was 0.626, 0.657, 0.509 and 0.524 for cultivated and weedy types of var. frutescens, and cultivated and weedy types of var. crispa, respectively. The weedy type accessions of var. frutescens and var. crispa showed more variation than corresponding cultivated type accessions. As for the cultivated type of var. frutescens, the accessions from China showed higher microsatellite diversity than those of Korea and Japan. An UPGMA phylogenetic tree revealed three major groups which were congruent with their morphological characters and geographical distribution patterns except for a few odd accessions. Although the wild ancestral species of cultivated types of P. frutescens has not yet been identified, our results may provide some evidence for the origin and the diffusion route of cultivated type of var. frutescens in East Asia. Cultivated Perilla crop might be originated in China, and its diffusion might be from China to Japan via Korea and the weedy types of Perilla crop are the key taxon in understanding the origin of cultivated type of both var. frutescens and of var. crispa.

• Ju Kyong Lee
• Nam Soo Kim