Kalopanax pictus is a long-lived woody species mostly distributed in East Asia. K. pictus has been regarded as medically and ecologically important species in Korea. Thornless castor aralia variant, local name 'Cheongsong' is an endemic to Cheongsong province in Korea. Random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) was used to investigate the genetic variation and structure of Korean populations of two species. A high level of genetic variation was found in six K. pictus populations. Twelve primers revealed 49 loci, of which 29 were polymorphic (59.2%). Nei's gene diversity for K.pictus and K. pictus variant were 0.119 and 0.098, respectively. Mean of genetic diversity in K. pictus was higher than average values for species with similar life history traits. The asexual and sexual reproduction, perennial habitat, and longevity are proposed as possible factors contributing to high genetic diversity. An indirect estimate of the number of migrants per generation (Nm=0.857) indicated that gene flow was not extensive among Korean populations of K.pictus. It is suggested that the isolation of geographical distance and reproductive isolation between K.pictus and K.pictus variant populations may have played roles in shaping the population structure of this species.

한국내 분포하는 다년생 초본인 삽주 집단의 유전적 다양도와 집단구조를 조사하기 위해 전분 전기영동으로 분석하였다. 15 대립유전자좌위당 9개 좌위에서 다형현상(60.0%)을 보였으며, 유전적 다양도는 종수준에서 0.144로 높은 반면 집단수준이 이보다 약간 낮았다. 삽주의 유전적 다양도는 대부분 집단내에 존재하였고 유사한 생활양식을 가진 다른 식물종에 비해 높았다. 그 이유로는 유성생식, 다년생, 다산 등에 기인한다. 집단간 분화는 약 13%였고 지리적 거리와 유전적 거리의 상관은 높았다(r=0.65). 그럼에도 불구하고 일부 격리된 집단은 유효집단크기를 가지지 못하여 이형접합체의 결여가 유의성을 보여 다양도가 높은 집단의 보존이 요망된다.

Somaclonal variation was observed in the field on doubled haploid plants derived from single pollen of a rice cultivar "Hwaseongbyeo". The variations of seven quantitative traits including plant height and one qualitative trait (pubescence) in 436 lines (R2 generation) were analyzed. The number of lines which fell beyond the boundaries of the 95% confidence intervals of the check variety, Hwaseongbyeo was checked for each quantitative trait, and of those fertility showed the highest variation frequency (85.6%), followed by plant height (77.5%), flag leaf length (66.5%), grains per panicle (42.2%), days to heading (34.5%), panicle length (30.7%) and panicles per hill (22.7%). And the variations of quantitative traits except days to flowering appeared to move in the negative direction compared to "Hwaseongbyeo". Variability within lines was also observed for quantitative and qualitative traits. Twenty-nine R2 lines (7%) segregated for pubescence and 130 R2 lines (30%) showed variation with regard to fertility. This suggests that mutations usually occur before diploidization. Twenty-nine R2 lines representing a wide spectrum of variation were chosen for RAPD analysis. The number of lines showing DNA polymorphism compared to Hwaseongbyeo ranged 0 from to 10 according to the primer used and this seems to indicate that specific loci have highly mutable genomic site.utable genomic site.