[Genetic diversity of yam (Dioscorea opposita Thunb) detected by ISSR markers].

Genetic diversity of 28 cultivars of yam (Dioscorea opposita Thunb) was assessed by means of Inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers. The results showed that seven proper primers, with rich polymorphism, could be selected from a total of forty four ISSR ones; distinct differences appeared among 28 cultivars amplified bands, and the rate of polymorphic bands was 83.01%; Shannon's Information index was 0.3191; a Jaccard's genetic similarity matrix and a dendrogram for these cultivars were formed, in which they could be divided into four groups: Group 1 was composed of D. opposita. cv. Ribenbai, D. opposita. cv. Huashanyao and D. opposita. cv. Ribenyuan; Group2 contained D. opposita. cv. Xiaoye; Group 3 contained D. opposita. cv. No.1 Songye; other 23 cultivars were put into Group4. PCA(Principal component analysis) was employed to evaluate the resolving power of the markers to differentiate among them. This laid the foundation of the identification of yam cultivars and the efficient use of its germplasm resources.