Abstract:

Abstract: Taxus wallichiana var. mairei is one of the endangered and important species in the southern China. In this study, genetic diversity and genetic differentiation of fifteen representative provenances were analyzed to provide a theoretical basis for its genetic conservation strategy with ISSR markers. A high genetic diversity (0.419 2) for T. wallichiana var. maire iwas detected. The percentage of population polymorphic loci, Nei's genetic diversity and Shannon's information diversity index ranged from 80.00% to 93.33%,0.339 3 to 0.387 3 and 0.492 6 to 0.561 5 respectively. The genetic diversity of 1 provenances was affected by both latitude and longitude in nonlinear manner. The provenances from the middle and the east part of China showed higher genetic diversity than those from the southern and the western part of China. As the tested provenances were derived from ancient woods with a large area, a short fragmentation period, and the special breeding characteristics, the genetic differentiations among these provenances studied were small and the genetic relationship was quite close. Molecular variance analysis demonstrated that the genetic variation among-provenance and within-provenance accounted for 8.75% and 91.25% of the total genetic variation respectively. Analysis of Nei's unbiased genetic distance showed the 15 tested provenances except Wuping and Wuyishan in Fujian could be clustered into two groups, which distribute mainly in the north-east and south-west area of the South China respectively.

Key words: Key words: Taxus wallichiana var. mairei, provenance, genetic diversity, genetic differentiation, ISSR, PCR