J Syst Evol ›› 2007, Vol. 45 ›› Issue (4): 488-496.DOI: 10.1360/aps06214

• Research Articles • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Phylogeographic structure of Primula obconica (Primulaceae) inferred from chloroplast microsatellites (cpSSRs) markers

1 4YAN Hai-Fei, 2PENG Ching-I, 1HU Chi-Ming, 3HAO Gang*   

  1. 1(South China Botanical Garden, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510650, China)

    2(Research Center for Biodiversity, Academia Sinica, Nankang, Taipei 115, China)

    3(College of Life Sciences, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China)

    4(Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China)haogang@scau.edu.cn;haogang@scbg.ac.cn
  • Received:2006-12-28 Published:2007-07-18

Abstract: Primula obconica has been cultivated widely as a popular garden plant. In order to
discover the pattern of genetic diversity and the evolutionary process, a total of 278
individuals from 17 populations throughout its distribution in China were analyzed using
chloroplast microsatellites (cpSSRs) markers. Four loci and a total of 14 haplotypes were
identified by our data set. The total gene diversity (HT =0.971) is high, while gene diversity
within populations (HS=0.028) is low. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) shows that
about 98% variation is among populations. The results suggest that past fragmentation and
limited dispersal ability of seeds might play important roles in forming the present genetic
structure. A significantly higher value of Nst than that of Gst indicates that closely related
haplotypes are often found in the same area, and we found two different groups in the
minimum spanning tree (MST), which occupy different geographic regions. Furthermore,
older haplotypes were detected in the two groups, respectively. Possible refugia are inferred in
western Hubei Province and SW China during the glacial period.

Key words: Primula obconica, genetic diversity, chloroplast microsatellite, glacial period, refugia