Molecular genetic diversity of the selenium hyperaccumulator Stanleya pinnata

Abstract

Stanleya pinnata is a perennial herb that can hyperaccumulate selenium. In the present study, genetic diversity of 15 accessions of S. pinnata originating from different locations in the USA was determined using sequence amplified polymorphism (SRAP) markers. A total of 506 alleles were identified among the 15 accessions and 98% of these alleles were polymorphic. Dice dissimilarity coefficient values between accessions varied from 0.14 to 0.87 with an average of 0.53 indicating that the plant material was highly diverse as expected given its self-incompatibility. A dendrogram was constructed to understand the genetic relationships among the accessions based on the molecular marker data. The dendrogram grouped the 15 S. pinnata accessions into three clusters while population structure analysis divided these accessions into five groups. Clustering was correlated with accession origin.