ABSTRACT
Objective System evolution relationship and molecular identification method of the germplasm resources of Lycoris aurea from different regions was analyzed based on the sequence of psbA-trnH chloroplast gene. Methods DNA samples of 52 L. aurea populations were extracted from 15 provinces or cities in China. The psbA-trnH sequences of the populations were amplified by PCR, and the purified PCR products were sequenced and analyzed by Mega 5.0 software etc. Results The length of psbA-trnH sequences were 544-656 bp, and GC content of them was 35.8%-37.0%, and the genetic distances among the populations were 0-0.009 47. There were 33 variable (polymorphic) sites, including nine parsimony informative sites and 18 singleton variable sites and six insertion/deletion gaps. Ten haplotypes (H) were identified. Values of haplotype diversity (Hd) and nucleotide diversity (π) were 0.749 and 0.002 63, respectively. The genetic diversity of the populations of L. aurea were very high. In the maximum parsimony phylogenetic tree, 52 populations of L. aurea were clustered into four branches, which was almost consistent with their geographical distributions. Conclusion The genetic variation of L. aurea populations from different regions is significant and the psbA-trnH sequence could be used as a molecular evidence for identifying the germplasm resources of L. aurea from different regions. There is very obvious regional characteristics in evolution for germplasm resources of L. aurea in China.