title: Molecular insights of genetic variation in Erianthus arundinaceus populations native to China.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  E. arundinaceus (Retz.) Jeswiet is a warm-season, tall-growing perennial species native to much southern portion in China. The grass has been extensively used in sugarcane breeding and is recently targeted as a bioenergy feedstock crop. However, information on the genetic structure of the Chinese wild germplasm is limited. Knowledge of genetic variation within and among populations is essential for breeding new cultivars in the species. The major objective of this study was to quantify the magnitude of genetic variation among and within natural populations in China.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In this experiment, we analyzed genetic variation of 164 individuals of 18 populations collected from natural habitats in six Chinese provinces using 20 sequence-related amplified polymorphism (SRAP) primer pairs generating 277 polymorphic bands. Among and within the populations, the percentage of polymorphic bands (PPB) was 80.00% and 27.07%, genetic diversity (HE ) was 0.245 and 0.099, effective number of alleles (NE ) was 1.350 and 1.170, and Shannon's information index (I) was 0.340 and 0.147, respectively. The populations were clustered into six groups exhibiting a high level of genetic differentiation, which was highly associated with geographic origins of respective germplasm populations, but was not significantly associated with geographic distances between the populations.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This is the first report indicating that large genetic variation exists in the Chinese E. arundinaceus germplasm based on the SRAP molecular marker analysis of native populations. The genetic structure of populations in the species has been substantially affected by geographic landforms and environments. The diverse collection will be highly valuable in genetic improvement in the species per se and likely in sugarcane.
authors.affiliation: Department of Grassland Science, Animal Science and Technology College, Sichuan Agricultural University, Ya'an, Sichuan, China ; Sichuan Academy of Grassland Science, Chengdu, Sichuan, China ; Guizhou Grassland Science Institute, Guiyang, Guizhou, China.
authors.forename: Jianbo
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Jiajun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.forename: Yunwei
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Xiao
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Shiqie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bai
authors.forename: Yanqi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Zhixue
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Dao
authors.forename: Daxu
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Changbing
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Minghong
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: You
authors.forename: Fuyu
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Jin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D002681:China; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D005843:Geography; D010802:Phylogeny; D006109:Poaceae / Q000235:genetics*; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic