Abstract
Although Cynodon dactylon (C. dactylon) is widely distributed in China, information on its genetic diversity within the germplasm pool is limited. The objective of this study was to reveal the genetic variation and relationships of 430 C. dactylon accessions collected from 22 Chinese provinces using sequence-related amplified polymorphism (SRAP) markers. Fifteen primer pairs were used to amplify specific C. dactylon genomic sequences. A total of 481 SRAP fragments were generated, with fragment sizes ranging from 260–1800 base pairs (bp). Genetic similarity coefficients (GSC) among the 430 accessions averaged 0.72 and ranged from 0.53–0.96. Cluster analysis conducted by two methods, namely the unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic averages (UPGMA) and principle coordinate analysis (PCoA), separated the accessions into eight distinct groups. Our findings verify that Chinese C. dactylon germplasms have rich genetic diversity, which is an excellent basis for C. dactylon breeding for new cultivars.
Highlights
The genus Cynodon Richard, which comprises nine species and 10 varieties, originated from tropical and subtropical areas [1]
Our study examined a wide range of accessions from China, it suffers from the limitation that no accessions were collected from Xinjiang province, which is the major geographic region of C. dactylon, and has a distinct environmental condition
We found a high level of polymorphism (100%) among various accessions, which is consistent with the findings of previous studies [33,34], and further confirms that the sequence-related amplified polymorphism (SRAP)
Summary
The genus Cynodon Richard, which comprises nine species and 10 varieties, originated from tropical and subtropical areas [1]. C. dactylon (common bermudagrass), the most widespread species in the genus is widely adapted and geographically distributed throughout the world between latitudes of 45°N and 45°S [1,2], and extends up to approximately 53° N latitude in Europe [3]. It is used extensively as pasture grass, turfgrass and for soil conservation throughout this region, and makes up the major turfs of public parks, golf courses, and sports fields in many countries
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