DNA Polymorphism and Assessments of Genetic Relationships in genus Zoysia Based on Simple Sequence Repeat Markers

Abstract

The genetic variability of four species of the genus Zoysia collected from South Korea was analyzed using an inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) marker system. Polymerase chain reactions (PCR) with eight ISSR primers generated 86 amplicons, 76 (87.1%) of which were polymorphisms. The polymorphism information content (PIC) value of the ISSR marker system was 0.848. The percentage of polymorphic loci (Pp) ranged from 41.2% to 44.7%. Nei's gene diversity (H) ranged from 0.149 to 0.186, with an average overall value of 0.170. The mean of Shannon's information index (I) value was 0.250. Total genetic diversity values (HT) varied between 0.356 (ISSR-1) and 0.418 (ISSR-16), for an average overall polymorphic loci of 0.345. Interlocus variation in within-species genetic diversity (HS) was low (0.170). On a per-locus basis, the proportion of total genetic variation due to differences among species (GST) was 0.601. This indicated that about 60.1% of the total variation was among species. Thus, about 39.9 of genetic variation was within species. The estimate of gene flow, based on GST, was very low among species of the genus Zoysia (Nm = 0.332). The phylogenic tree showed three distinct groups: Z. macrostachya and Z. tenuifolia clades and other species were formed the separated clusters. In conclusion, the ISSR assay was useful for detecting genetic variation in the genus Zoysia, and its discriminatory power was comparable to that of other genotyping tools.