Clonal Structure and Genetic Diversity of Natural Syringa pinnatifolia var.alanshanica Assessed by ISSR

Clonal diversity,growth structure,and genetic diversity of 8 natural Syringa pinnatifolia var.alanshanica populations were assessed by ISSR molecular markers.Results showed that 16 ramets of 3 individual genets shared the same genotype,whereas 136 genotypes were differentiated among the other 239 samples from 7 populations.Clonal diversity revealed that S.pinnatifolia var.alanshanica was a phalanx clonal species and each population was composed of several clones.Most genets contained one ramet and the highest quantity of one genet consisted of 8 ramets.A relatively high clonal diversity of genotype Simpson’s index (D=0.994) and distributional uniformity of genotype Fager’s index (E= 0.985) was detected.Individuals per genotype (N_C) and mean genotype proportion (PD) were 1.729 and 0.578,respectively,at the species level.In addition,high genetic diversity was detected at both population and species level.The coefficient gene differentiation (G_ST) was 0.320,indicating less differentiation among populations than within populations.