Genetic diversity of Lilium tsingtauense in China and Korea revealed by ISSR markers and morphological characters

Abstract

To study the genetic diversity and population structure of Lilium tsingtauense Gilg (Qingdao Lily), we collected 648 samples from 12 sites in China and Korea, and analyzed their Inter-Simple Sequence Repeat (ISSR) molecular markers and morphological characters. ISSR data revealed a relatively high genetic diversity at the species level, with 72.31% polymorphic loci, effective numbers of alleles of 1.437, average expected heterozygosity of 0.231 and Shannon's information index of 0.369. Considerable genetic differentiation among the natural populations (G(ST) = 0.144) and the gene flow (N-m = 1.487) were detected. AMOVA analysis and UPGMA-dendrogram suggested a hierarchical regional structure among populations, and spatial autocorrelation analysis showed a micro-scaled spatial structure. Furthermore, there was a high correlation between morphological characters and genetic parameters obtained from ISSR parameters. There was only a low genetic differentiation among the different morphological types of L tsingtauence in China. Based on these findings, we recommend in situ and ex situ conservation strategies for the preservation of L tsingtauense. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.