State Key Laboratory of Hybrid Rice, College of Life Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, People's Republic of China.
Mol Biol Rep. 2012 Apr;39(4):3637-47. doi: 10.1007/s11033-011-1138-y. Epub 2011 Jul 7.
The sacred lotus (Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn.) is an aquatic plant of economic and ornamental importance in China. In this study, we developed twenty novel sacred lotus SSR markers, and used AFLP and SSR markers to investigate the genetic diversity and genetic relationships among 58 accessions of N. nucifera including 15 seed lotus, 12 rhizome lotus, 24 flower lotus and 7 wild lotus. Our results showed that sacred lotus exhibited a low level of genetic diversity, which may attribute to asexual reproduction and long-term artificial selection. A dendrogram based on both AFLP and SSR clustering data showed that: (1) the seed lotus accessions and rhizome lotus accessions were distinctly clustered into different groups, which indicated the significant genetic differentiation between them. This may be attributed to the two modes of reproduction and lack of genetic exchange; (2) the accessions of Thailand wild lotus were separated from other wild lotus accessions. This implied that the Thailand lotus might be genetically differentiated from other wild lotuses. In addition, Mantel test conducted gave highly significant correlation between AFLP-SSR data and each of the AFLP and SSR ones, with the values of r = 0.941 and r = 0.879, respectively, indicating the higher efficiency of the combination of these techniques (AFLP and SSR) in estimation and validation of the genetic diversity among the accession of sacred lotus. This knowledge of the genetic diversity and genetic relatedness of N. nucifera is potentially useful to improve the current strategies in breeding and germplasm conservation to enhance the ornamental and economic value of sacred lotus.
荷花（Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn.）是中国具有经济和观赏价值的水生植物。本研究开发了 20 个新型荷花 SSR 标记，并利用 AFLP 和 SSR 标记对包括 15 个籽莲、12 个藕莲、24 个花莲和 7 个野生莲在内的 58 个荷花品种的遗传多样性和遗传关系进行了研究。结果表明，荷花遗传多样性较低，这可能归因于无性繁殖和长期的人工选择。基于 AFLP 和 SSR 聚类数据构建的系统发育树表明：（1）籽莲品种和藕莲品种明显聚为不同的组，表明它们之间存在显著的遗传分化。这可能是由于两种繁殖方式和缺乏遗传交流造成的；（2）泰国野生莲的品种与其他野生莲品种分离。这表明泰国荷花可能与其他野生荷花在遗传上存在分化。此外，Mantel 检验结果显示 AFLP-SSR 数据与 AFLP 和 SSR 数据之间具有高度显著的相关性，相关系数分别为 0.941 和 0.879，表明 AFLP 和 SSR 等技术组合在评估和验证荷花品种遗传多样性方面具有更高的效率。这些关于荷花遗传多样性和遗传关系的知识，对于改进目前的选育和种质保存策略，提高荷花的观赏和经济价值具有潜在的应用价值。
