Morphological Characteristics And AFLP Analysis In Bermudagrass (Cynodon Dactylon) And Seashore Paspalum (Paspalum Vaginatum)

With the economy developing at top speed, the urban development brings best chances for turf industry. Now approximately 90% landgrass species used in China are mainly dependent on introduced species which has caused unsuitable and ecological problems. As a result, we have to develop and utilize domestic species. Moreover, differentiated climate, landform and soil conditions result in rich ecotypes and varieties, which lead to huge potentialities for further development. Studied on turfgrass germplasm has been noticed by breeding experts because it has rich genetic diversities and many good characteristics. To better use wild turfgrass resources, the study on bermudagrass and seashore paspalum were used to know identification and genetic relationship by AFLP markers.36 collections of wild bermudagrass (Cynodon dactylon) and cultivars were selected as experimental materials to evaluate the genetic diversity on morphological and DNA molecular levels effectively. The results provide the theoretic and practieal scientific data for learning about genetic relationships of bermudagrass accessions, effectively protecting or utilizing wild bermudagrass germplasm and constructing core germplasm pool, as well as establishing a primary AFLP fingerprint. The research results showed that: 327 DNA polymorphic bands were scored from amplification of 16 AFLP primer combinations, the average percentage of polymorphic bands was 81.75%. It indicates a comparatively rich genetic diversity among the tested accessions. 36 bermudagrass materials can be identified by AFLP fingerprint performed with primers E47M48,E33M48,E47M63,E51M66 and E47M59. The genetic similarity coefficients(GSCs) among all accessions ranged from 0.5286 to 0.8857. The accessions were clusterd into one group at 0.59 level of genetic similarity based on UPGMA cluster. The total 31 wild bermudagrass accessions from Zhe Jiang, JangSu, Fu Jian were clusted into one group expect for 6,7,21 materials at 0.698 level of genetic similarity. The range of morphological taxonomic dissimilarity (TD) was from 0.483 to 7.960. The results showed that, the samples could be classified into three clusters at the level of taxonomic dissimilarity from 9.21 to 10.95. The total 10 wild bermudagrass accessions from Fu Jian expect for 6,7,21 accessions were clusted into one group at the 4.01 level of genetic distance with No.1 accession from Zhe Jiang.To ensure the variety purity is the key issue during the vegetative propagation in seashore paspalum (Paspalum vaginatum). Varietes'Salam','SeaSpray','SeaDwarf','SeaIsle 2000'and'SeaDwarf'mutant were analysed by morphological and AFLP differences. The results showed that AFLP analysis were similar to their morphological characteristics, which all showed that'Salam'and'SeaSpray'are genetically closer and could be clustered in one group, and'SeaDwarf'and'SeaIsle 2000'was the another. AFLP analysis showed the genetic similarity coefficients(GSCs) between'SeaDwarf'and'SeaDwarf'mutant was 0.5281, and their morphological taxonomic dissimilarity(TD) was as high as 4.8570, which all indicated that'SeaDwarf'mutant was a complete mutation from'SeaDwarf'. There were 11 primer combinations showed clear, stable, and differential fingerprints among the tested seashore paspalum varieties. Eight DNA markers found could be used to identify these seashore paspalum varities. The results indicated that AFLP analysis could be used to assist the identification of seashore paspalum varieties or their mutants.