Evaluation of genetic diversity and construction of DNA fingerprinting in Polygonatum Mill. based on InDel molecular markers

Polygonatum Mill. has important medicinal, edible and ornamental values, but the classification within the Polygonatum Mill. genus through phenotypic characteristics is difficult. Hence, the study of genetic diversity at the molecular level is beneficial to identify resources within Polygonatum Mill.. Insertion-deletion polymorphisms (InDels) are user friendly, co-dominant and relatively abundant, which can determine genetic similarity of the germplasm and are used to estimate genetic diversity. In the present study, the developed InDel markers were used to genotype 54 P. Mill. accessions to assess the genetic diversity and construct DNA fingerprints. The InDels produced 1612 clear bands and 1504 (93.30%) polymorphic bands. The average value of the Nei's gene diversity (H) and Shannon's information index (I) was 0.2469 and 0.3864, respectively. The genetic distances of the materials ranged from 0.0164 to 1.7748 with an average of 0.6183. The clustering analysis indicated that Polygonatum cyrtonema Hua, Polygonatum sibiricum and Polygonatum kingianum could be distinguished basically, however interspecific and geographic crossover still existed. Finally, 11 markers which could produce abundant and stable bands were used to construct DNA fingerprinting database of Polygonatum Mill.. This study provides a basis for the analysis of genetic diversity and identification germplasm resources in Polygonatum Mill..