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. 2019 Feb 18:7:e6419.
doi: 10.7717/peerj.6419. eCollection 2019.

Analysis of the genetic diversity and population structure of Salix psammophila based on phenotypic traits and simple sequence repeat markers

Lei Hao  1   2 , Guosheng Zhang  1 , Dongye Lu  1 , Jianjun Hu  3 , Huixia Jia  3
Affiliations

Analysis of the genetic diversity and population structure of Salix psammophila based on phenotypic traits and simple sequence repeat markers

Lei Hao et al. PeerJ. .

Abstract

Salix psammophila (desert willow) is a shrub endemic to the Kubuqi Desert and the Mu Us Desert, China, that plays an important role in maintaining local ecosystems and can be used as a biomass feedstock for biofuels and bioenergy. However, the lack of information on phenotypic traits and molecular markers for this species limits the study of genetic diversity and population structure. In this study, nine phenotypic traits were analyzed to assess the morphological diversity and variation. The mean coefficient of variation of 17 populations ranged from 18.35% (branch angle (BA)) to 38.52% (leaf area (LA)). Unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic mean analysis of nine phenotypic traits of S. psammophila showed the same results, with the 17 populations clustering into five groups. We selected 491 genets of the 17 populations to analyze genetic diversity and population structure based on simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) revealed that most of the genetic variance (95%) was within populations, whereas only a small portion (5%) was among populations. Moreover, using the animal model with SSR-based relatedness estimated of S. psammophila, we found relatively moderate heritability values for phenotypic traits, suggesting that most of trait variation were caused by environmental or developmental variation. Principal coordinate and phylogenetic analyses based on SSR data revealed that populations P1, P2, P9, P16, and P17 were separated from the others. The results showed that the marginal populations located in the northeastern and southwestern had lower genetic diversity, which may be related to the direction of wind. These results provide a theoretical basis for germplasm management and genetic improvement of desert willow.

Keywords: Genetic diversity; Phenotypic traits; SSR; Salix psammophila; Structure genetics.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Locations of the 17 S. psammophila populations.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Hierarchical clustering dendrogram of 491 S. psammophila genets based on seven phenotypic traits.
Figure 3
Figure 3. UPGMA dendrogram of 17 S. psammophila populations based on seven phenotypic traits.
The gradual change of red to blue indicates that the average value of each phenotypic trait in the population is standardized range from 3.09 to −2.09.
Figure 4
Figure 4. Neighbor-joining phylogenetic tree of 491 genets of S. psammophila based on SSR data.
Figure 5
Figure 5. Neighbor-joining phylogenetic tree of 17 populations of S. psammophila based on SSR data.
Figure 6
Figure 6. PCoA analyses based on SSR data for 491 genets from 17 S. psammophila populations.
The 491 genets are labeled with different colors according to the population to which they belong.
Figure 7
Figure 7. Population genetic structure of 491 genets from 17 populations of S. psammophila (2 ≤ K ≤ 5).
(A) K = 2, (B) K = 3, (C) K = 4, (D) K = 5.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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