Genetic diversity of Pogonatherum paniceum (Lam.) Hack. in Southwest China revealed by AFLP markers

Amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers were used to estimate the genetic diversity of Pogonatherum paniceum (Lam.) Hack. from Sichuan Province, Yunnan Province, Chongqing City and Guangxi Zhuang autonomous Region in China. 10 primer combinations were carried out on 180 different individuals sampled from 22 wild populations. Out of the 485 discernable DNA fragments generated, 441 were polymorphic. The percentage of polymorphic bands (PPB) was 90.93% at the species level. Observed number of alleles was 1.9093 ± 0.2875 and effective number of alleles was 1.4048 ± 0.3342. Nei's gene diversity and Shannon's Information index were 0.2494 ± 0.1657 and 0.3903 ±0.2186, respectively. Nei’s genetic distance among 22 populations ranged from 0.0996 to 0.6952. Genetic identity among populations ranged from 0.4990 to 0.9052, averaging 0.7387. Unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean (UPGMA) cluster analysis based on Nei’s genetic distance indicated that most populations were positioned into the relevant area. The above-mentioned results suggested the level of genetic variation of P. paniceum paniceum (Lam.) Hack. was low. The high score of PPB might be caused by low frequent polymorphism distributed in different populations. A significant correlation between genetic and geographic distances of populations was revealed based on Mantel test.