Analysis of genetic diversity of Yanshan chestnut by RAPD

Yanshan area is an important chestnut producing and export base in china. In order to explore the genetic diversity of the local chestnut germplsm, 36 local cultivars and 8 cultivars collected from the other producing areas were used as materials for studying their diversity by RAPD (random amplified polymorphic DNA markers). Clustering was executed among them. The results showed that all the cultivars could be identified by RAPD method. 16 random primers produced 132 DNA fragments and the polymorphic fragments amounted to 62.9%. The genetic diversity among 83 loci ranged from 0.096 to 0.444 and average genetic diversity was 0.187. The dendrogram generated by UPGMA clustered all the 44 cultivars into 4 groups. There was obviously difference between Yanshan chestnut cultivars and exotic cultivars. In addition, we found some specific markers or combination of markers for 19 cultivars which could be used to identify these cultivars.