Chin J Plant Ecol ›› 2007, Vol. 31 ›› Issue (4): 680-688.DOI: 10.17521/cjpe.2007.0088

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POPULATION GENETIC DIFFERENTIATIONS IN THE INVASIVE PLANT MIKANIA MICRANTHA IN CHINA

LI Jun-Min1,3, DONG Ming2,*(), ZHONG Zhang-Cheng1   

  1. 1The State Education Ministry's Key Laboratory for the Eco-environment of Three Gorges Reservoir Area, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China
    2Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China
    3Institute of Ecology, Taizhou University, Linhai, Zhejiang 317000, China
  • Received:2006-08-20 Accepted:2007-01-05 Online:2007-08-20 Published:2007-07-30
  • Contact: DONG Ming

Abstract:

Aims Genetic changes after introduction may contribute to the success of invasive plants. Our objective was to measure genetic diversity and genetic differentiation in the invasive Mikania micrantha in order to assess its invasive prospects.
Methods Inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers were used to analyze genetic diversity and genetic differentiation in eight populations of M. micrantha.
Important findings The 12 ISSR primers used in this study produced 171 loci, of which 103 were polymorphic. At the species level, the percentage of polymorphic loci (P) was 60.23%, Shannon's information index (I) 0.281 8 and Nei's gene diversity (h) 0.184 9, indicating high genetic diversity in M. micrantha. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) revealed that a high proportion (36.49%) of the total genetic variation was partitioned among populations, suggesting significant genetic differentiations among the eight populations of M. micrantha. Gene differentiation coefficient (GST) among populations was 0.352 4, and gene flow among populations was 0.918 7. Average genetic similarity of the eight populations was 0.915 5, while average genetic distance was 0.088 4. Using unweighted pair group method arithmetic average (UPGMA), the eight populations were clustered into two groups: the two populations on Neilingding Island were one group and the other six from mainland China were the other.

Key words: Mikania micrantha, invasive plant, genetic diversity, genetic differentiation, ISSR