Analysis of Genetic Distance among Four Glycine Species Collected from Taiwan: Revealed by DNA Polymorphisms

Abstract

Suhgenus Glycine are general1y distributed in Australia, Micronesia, and southern China, but G. tomentella and G. tabacina can all be found in Taiwan, which is the northern most distribution area of subgenus Glycine. G. formosana of subgenus Soja are also found in Taiwan. However, these three wild species of soybeans are very complicated in the variation of morphological characters. In the past, their relationships in taxonomy were rather unclear. The researcher have investigated the morphological characters of Taiwanese wild soybean and re-classified these three species mentioned above into four species, G. tomentella, G. tabacina, G. dolichocarpa, and G. max ssp. formosana (Hosokawa) Tateishi et Ohashi. In this report, four species and G. soja was analyzed their interspecies relations by random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD). The results of RAPD analysis showed that G. soja and G. max ssp. formosana are the most closely-related among the five species, and that G. tabacina is the least related to the rest of the species. As a result, they can be classified into two groups: A) G. soja and G. max ssp. formosana; B) G. tomentella, G. tabacina, and G. dolichocarpa. In group A, the similarity coefficients are between 0.50 and 0.65, while being between 0.09 and 0.17 in group B.