Research Article
Genetic Diversity and Population Structure of Chinese Jujube (Ziziphus jujuba Mill.) and Sour Jujube (Ziziphus acidojujuba Mill.) using Inter-simple Sequence Repeat (ISSR) Markers 
,
Mingxin Guo* ,
Shan Tian ,
Hongxia Liu ,
Xusheng Zhao 
* These authors contributed equally to this work
Author Correspondence author
Molecular Plant Breeding, 2021, Vol. 12, No. 14 doi: 10.5376/mpb.2021.12.0014
Received: 14 Mar., 2021 Accepted: 06 May, 2021 Published: 20 May, 2021
Li S.P., Guo M.X., Tian S., Liu H.X., and Zhao X.S., 2021, Genetic diversity and population structure of Chinese jujube (Ziziphus jujuba Mill.) and sour jujube (Ziziphus acidojujuba Mill.) using inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers, Molecular Plant Breeding, 12(14): 1-21 (doi: 10.5376/mpb.2021.12.0014)
The Chinese jujube (Ziziphus jujuba Mill.) originates from sour jujube (Ziziphus acidojujuba Mill.) and is an economically important genus in the Rhamnaceae family. However, little is known about the genetic relationship between jujube cultivars and wild species. In this study, we estimated the genetic variation and relationships between 85 jujube cultivars and 55 sour jujube individuals by ISSR markers. Of 216 ISSR primers, 110 were able produce amplified product(s) and 28 showed polymorphisms, accounting for 50.9% and 25.5% of total primers respectively. A total of 89 amplicons were amplified with 28 primers, of which 42 amplicons (47.2%) were polymorphic, and most of primers exhibited high PIC values. Cluster analysis and population structure analysis roughly divided the 140 accessions into two major groups. One group included all jujube cultivars and some sour jujube individuals, and the other group included remaining sour jujube individuals. Most jujube cultivars have a weak correlation with their origin, and there are obvious gene exchanges between sour jujube and jujube cultivars. The results provide a useful basis for jujube germplasm conservation, genetic improvement and evolution research.