Analysis of Genetic Diversity and Relationship of Chinese Lagerstroemia indica Cultivars Based on AFLP and Morphological Markers

In order to analysis of genetic diversity and relationship of Lagerstroemia indica cultivars, Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphisms (AFLP) and morphological markers were used to assess 37 L. indica cultivars, as well as L. subcostata and L. limii. Results showed that totally 278 bands were obtained from 5 AFLP primer pairs, 228 bands (82%) were polymorphic. Genetic similarity coefficient was varying from 0.64 to 0.93. According to 38 phenotype values of morphological characters, the genetic similarity coefficient was varying from 0.33 to 0.89. Cluster analysis by unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic mean (UPGMA) showed that both AFLP and morphological markers could well distinguish the L. indica cultivars and separated them into 3 distinct groups, which is generally in accordance with the known pedigree information. Moreover, the number of petal colours could divide cultivars with L. indica pedigree into two subgroups. Based on the two methods, the results were similar in the evaluations of genetic diversity and relationship among L. indica cultivars.