Genetic diversity and relationships of lotus ( Nelumbo) cultivars based on allozyme and ISSR markers

Abstract

Genetic diversity and genetic relationships of lotus ( Nelumbo Adanson) cultivars were evaluated using allozyme and ISSR markers. The samples used covered 11 accessions of possible hybrids between Nelumbo nucifera and Nelumbo lutea and 92 accessions of N. nucifera including 69 flower lotus, 13 rhizome lotus, 5 seed lotus and 5 wild lotus. For allozyme studies, a total of 31 alleles at 23 loci of 18 enzyme systems were detected of which 5 (21.7%) loci Aat, Idh, Mdh-2, Pgd, Sod were polymorphic. The loci of Aat and Idh included two alleles, Mdh-2, Pgd and Sod included three alleles. Eighteen genotypes were detected with the 13 alleles of the 5 polymorphic loci. The parameters of average allele number, observed heterozygosity, expected heterozygosity and Shannon information index of 92 N. nucifera samples were 1.35 ± 0.71, 0.06 ± 0.21, 0.05 ± 0.14, 0.10 ± 023, respectively. Thirteen ISSR primers generated 93 loci, of which 37.63% were polymorphic across all samples. The percentage of polymorphic loci, average allele number, expected heterozygosity and Shannon information index of 92 N. nucifera samples were 26.67%, 1.30 ± 0.46, 0.10 ± 0.18 and 0.15 ± 0.25, respectively for the ISSR data. The ‘Bottleneck effect’ and rapid propagation of clones after the ice ages may explain the low genetic diversity of lotus. The dendrograms based on ISSR and allozymes were not congruent. Based on the ISSR data, the 103 samples were divided into the N. nucifera group (Group I), and the group containing inter-specific hybrids between N. nucifera and N. lutea (Group II). The flower lotus, rhizome lotus, and seed lotus each has multiple sources of origin. Plant size, a criterion commonly used in the classification of cultivars of lotus, is not correlated with genetic variation. Flower color is correlated with the cultivar classification to some degree, but its variation is complex in the hybrids.