Newly developed SSR markers reveal genetic diversity and geographical clustering in Paeonia suffruticosa based on flower colour

ABSTRACT

Tree peony (Paeonia suffruticosa Andr.), considered by many to be the national flower of China, is famous for its ornamental, medicinal and culinary attributes. In this study, a total of 8,663 Simple Sequence Repeats (SSRs) were detected by means of a microsatellite search of unigene sequences identified from the de novo assembly of sequence data from different genotypes of tree peony from the Zhongyuan group. Among 100 randomly selected SSR markers, 25 were successfully amplified and showed polymorphism in 31 tree peony accessions. The number of polymorphic alleles ranged from 3 to 11 for each locus and the polymorphism information content value (PIC) ranged from 0.58 to 0.85, with a mean of 0.73, indicating a high level of discriminative capability. To analyse the genetic diversity, a phylogenetic tree was constructed, which demonstrated that tree peonies of similar flower colour were clustered together. The large number of tree peony SSR markers identified in this study will be valuable in studies in genetic diversity and linkage map construction, in gene localisation and cloning and in molecular-marker-assisted breeding in tree peony.

KEYWORDS:

• Paeonia suffruticosa
• microsatellite marker
• simple sequence repeat
• genetic diversity
• flower colour
• geographical clustering

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, under Grant # 31370697; the Plan for Scientific Innovation Talent of Henan Province, under Grant # 164200510013; the Natural Science Foundation of Henan Province, under Grant # 162300410079; and the Education Department Project of Henan Province, under Grant # 17A180003.