Abstract

Genetic diversity of 73 local mulberry varieties from Shanxi Province were screened using ISSR markers, with l5 primers combinations selected for their reproducibility and polymorphism. 129 bands were amplified, of which 115 bands showed polymorphism and the ratio of polymorphism bands was 89.15%. Nei’s genetic similarity coefficients ranged from 0.5891 to 0.9457 with an average of 0.7674. The observed number of alleles of each loci, effective number of alleles of each loci, Nei’s gene diversity, Shannon’s information index were 1.8915, 1.4771, 0.2780 and 0.4197, respectively. Clustering results showed that the 73 varieties could be divided into three different groups and nine subgroups. By using stepwise clustering and random methods and the modified heuristic algorithm, 21 core collections were constructed and the ratio of core collection was 28.77%. The result of t-test to the parameters (the number effective of alleles, Nei's genetic diversity index and Shannon's information index) showed that there was not significant difference between the core collection and initial sample with the exception of the number of observed alleles, that is, the core collection could well represent the initial sample.

Key words: Mulberry, germplasm resource, genetic diversity, ISSR, cluster analysis, core collection.