Zhou Jilei¹ , Zhang Liudong¹ , Fu Yinyin² , Chen Yong³ , Li Jingtao¹

1 Forestry Protection and Development Service Center of Shandong Province, Ji’nan, 250014, Shandong, China 2 Shandong Academy of Forestry Sciences/ Key Laboratory for Genetics and Breeding in Forest Trees of Shandong, Ji’nan, 250014, Shandong, China 3 Ji’nan Forestry and Fruit Technology Promotion and Industrial Service Center, Ji’nan, 250102, Shandong, China
Author    Correspondence author
Plant Gene and Trait, 2026, Vol. 17, No. 1   
Received: 26 Dec., 2025    Accepted: 26 Jan., 2026    Published: 10 Feb., 2026

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

To investigate the genetic diversity and phylogenetic relationships among Platycladus orientalis germplasm resources in Zaozhuang City, simple sequence repeat (SSR) molecular markers were used to analyze genetic diversity and relatedness in 100 P. orientalis accessions collected from four regions. The results showed that a total of 32 allelic loci were detected using seven pairs of SSR primers, with an average of 6.571 alleles per primer pair. The mean number of alleles (Na) was 3.714, the mean effective number of alleles (Ne) was 1.900, the mean Shannon’s information index (I) was 0.818, and the mean expected heterozygosity (He) was 0.440, indicating relatively high genetic diversity among the 100 sampled P. orientalis accessions. The Fst value was 0.0371, suggesting a high degree of similarity among populations, small genetic distances, and low genetic differentiation. Cluster analysis based on the estimation of the optimal K value showed that the maximum △K occurred at K=3, indicating that the 100 P. orientalis accessions could be divided into three groups rather than clustering strictly according to geographic origin, which implies the existence of gene flow among the sampled populations. Through preliminary screening and repeated validation, seven pairs of SSR primers with clear gel electrophoresis profiles were obtained, which showed stable amplification across all populations and yielded reliable, easily interpretable results. These microsatellite markers provide a useful reference for future studies on the origin and evolution of P. orientalis varieties, molecular identification and classification, hybrid breeding, and parental selection for genetic mapping.

Platycladus orientalis; SSR; Fingerprinting; Cluster analysis