Population structure and genetic diversity of Tamarix chinensis as revealed with microsatellite markers in two estuarine flats

BACKGROUND: Tamarix chinensis Lour. is a 3–6-meter-tall small tree with high salt- and alkali- tolerance and aggressive invasiveness, mainly distributed in the eastern part of China in warm-temperate and subtropical climate zones, yet there is little information available regarding genetic diversity and population structure. METHODS: A total of 204 individuals of nine T. chinensis populations were investigated for genetic diversity and population structure using a set of 12 highly polymorphic microsatellite markers. RESULTS: The total number of alleles detected was 162, the average number of effective allele was 4.607, the average polymorphism information content (PIC) value of the 12 loci was 0.685, and the mean observed heterozygosity (Ho) and the mean expected heterozygosity (He) was 0.653 and 0.711, respectively. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) showed a 5.32% genetic variation among T. chinensis populations. Despite a low population differentiation, Bayesian clustering analysis, discriminant analysis of principal components (DAPC) and the unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean (UPGMA) clearly identified three genetic clusters correlated to the populations’ geographic origin: the northern populations including those from Yellow River Delta, the Fangshan (FS) population from Beijing, the Changyi (CY) population from Bohai Bay, the Huanjiabu (HHJ) population from Hangzhou Bay, and the remaining two populations from Hangzhou Bay. There was a significant relationship between the genetic distance and geographical distance of the paired populations. Gene flow (Nm) was 4.254 estimated from F(ST). CONCLUSION: T. chinensis possessed high genetic diversity comparable to tree species, and although the population differentiation is shallow, our results classified the sampled populations according to sampling localities, suggesting the different origins of the study populations.