Senayai Athita, Harnvanichvech Yosapol, Vajrodaya Srunya, Oyama Tokitaka, Kraichak Ekaphan
Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, Kasetsart University, Bangkok 10900, Thailand.
Department of Botany, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan.
Plants (Basel). 2025 Jul 2;14(13):2030. doi: 10.3390/plants14132030.
Duckweeds have emerged as frontier plants in research, food, and bioenergy applications. Consistency in genetic and morphological traits within species is therefore crucial for their effective use. Thailand hosts diverse duckweed populations with representatives from four of the five genera and at least four species recorded. However, the extent of genetic and morphological variation within these species in Thailand remains unclear. Here, we investigated the genetic and morphological variation in four duckweed species-, , , and -collected from 26 sites across Thailand. Using the multilocus sequence typing approach based on three chloroplast genes (, , and ), we show that genetic variation in duckweed is distinct at both inter-species and intra-species levels. Among these four species, exhibits the highest genetic variation, forming four distinct phylogenetic clusters. This is followed by , , and . In addition, we observe that morphological variation, particularly frond aspect ratio, varies significantly among clusters but remains consistent within each cluster of each species. These findings suggest that duckweed populations in Thailand exhibit substantial genetic variation at the intraspecific level, which is closely associated with frond morphological variation.
浮萍已成为研究、食品和生物能源应用领域的前沿植物。因此，物种内遗传和形态特征的一致性对于其有效利用至关重要。泰国拥有多样化的浮萍种群，代表了五个属中的四个属，记录的物种至少有四种。然而，泰国这些物种内遗传和形态变异的程度仍不清楚。在这里，我们调查了从泰国26个地点采集的四种浮萍物种——、、和——的遗传和形态变异。使用基于三个叶绿体基因（、和）的多位点序列分型方法，我们表明浮萍的遗传变异在种间和种内水平上都是不同的。在这四个物种中，遗传变异最高，形成了四个不同的系统发育簇。其次是、和。此外，我们观察到形态变异，特别是叶状体长宽比，在不同簇之间有显著差异，但在每个物种的每个簇内保持一致。这些发现表明，泰国的浮萍种群在种内水平上表现出大量的遗传变异，这与叶状体形态变异密切相关。
