Identification of biomarker based on genome sequecing for Artemisia argyi

DNA markers have been applied to identifying varieties and individuals of various crops but seldomly adopted for plants of herbal medicine. This study developed novel DNA markers of multiple dispersed nucleotide polymorphisms (MNP) for the identification and genotyping of medical plants. The method combined targeted amplification and sequencing of selected genomic fragments, systematic bioinformatic analysis, and experimental validation. The method was applied to design 317 MNP markers for identifying Artemisia argyi at the level of individual plants with 100% genotyping accuracy. Taking A. argyi as a case stud, this is the first example of developing effective DNA markers and an efficient pipeline for identifying medicinal plants, which can be readily extended to address various issues for herbal medicine, e.g., genetic analysis and control of genetic consistency. The method and the A. argyi MNP markers developed in this study were recently adopted as the first Chinese national standard for variety identification of medicinal plants.