Evaluating the genetic diversity of Festuca sinensis germplasm resources in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau by EST-SSR markers

In this study, EST-SSR markers were used to study the genetic diversity and genetic relationship of 24 Festuca sinensis germplasms from Sichuan, Tibet and Qinghai. There were 102 loci detected from 17 primers and 5~8 loci per polymorphic locus. The mean number of polymorphic loci was 6 and the mean percentage of polymorphic loci was 93%. The range of genetic similarities was 0.188~0.675, with an average of 0.486, and polymorphism information content was 0.381, ranging from 0.240 to 0.470, which also revealed that the genetic resources of F. sinensis were rich in genetic diversity. The results of cluster analysis and principal component analysis showed that the association between the genetic relationships and geographical origin was low. Among them, the I-2-23-7and I-14-1-1 showed genetic specificity. The test materials were highly dissimilar between the 24 F. sinensis germplasms. Analysis of geographical elevations revealed that the F. sinensis germplasms with medium altitude (3 000-3 500 m) displayed the highest Nei's gene diversity (0.304 3) and Shannon's diversity index of 0.462 2, which indicated high genetic variation. The results provide an important reference for the conservation and utilization of the F. sinensis germplasm resources in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.