Abstract:

Five natural populations of Batula platyphylla from northeast part of China were taken as the materials, of which ISSR and RAPD molecular markers were used to detect the genetic diversity, and then the correlation between the fiber properties and DNA markers among the populations was studied based on the fiber property measuration. The result indicated that there was no significant difference among five mature stands in fiber length of the wood, but significant differences in fiber width and the ratio of fiber length to width. The fiber properties of Maoershan population were the best and Wangqing population the worst. The similar trend existed in genetic diversity among five populations detected by both molecular markers, which displayed the highest value in polymorphic loci percentage for Xinbin population, the second for Maoershan and Wangqing populations, the lowest for Tahe and Jinshantun. By AMOVA analysis, 10.82% of total genetic variation existed among the populations in ISSR markers and 12.94% of that in RAPD marker. That meant the genetic variation of B. platyphylla mainly occurred within the populations. The cluster analysis result according to the genetic distance among five populations by both markers was similar to that according to the fiber properties. Also, some correlation was showed between genetic distance by marker detection and geographic distance among the populations.

Key words: Batula platyphylla, fiber properties, RAPD marker, ISSR marker, genetic diversity, genetic relationship