Biogeographical Variation and Population Genetic Structure of Sporisorium scitamineum in Mainland China: Insights from ISSR and SP-SRAP Markers

A total of 100 Sporisorium scitamineum isolates were investigated by inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR) and single primer-sequence related amplified polymorphism (SP-SRAP) markers. These isolates were clearly assorted into three distinct clusters regardless of method used: either cluster analysis or by principal component analysis (PCA) of the ISSR, SP-SRAP, or ISSR + SP-SRAP data set. The total gene diversity (H (t)) and gene diversity between subpopulations (H (s)) were estimated to be 0.34 to 0.38 and 0.22 to 0.29, respectively, by analyzing separately the ISSR and SP-SRAP data sets, and to be 0.26–0.36 by analyzing ISSR + SP-SRAP data set. The gene diversity attributable to differentiation among populations (G (st)) was estimated to be 0.35 and 0.22, and the gene flow (Nm) was 0.94 and 1.78, respectively, when analyzing separately ISSR and SP-SRAP data set, and was 0.27 and 1.33, respectively, when analyzing ISSR + SP-SRAP data set. Our study showed that there is considerable genetic variation in the analyzed 100 isolates, and the environmental heterogeneity has played an important role for this observed high degree of variation. The genetic differentiation of sugarcane smut fungus depends to a large extent on the heterogeneity of their habitats and is the result of long-term adaptations of pathogens to their ecological environments.