Study On Morphological Variation And SRAP Genetic Diversity Of Cichorium Intybus L.

Fifty accessions of Cichorium intybus L. were collected and tested both in assessment of genetic diversity and in germplasm appraisal at morphological and molecular levels by a comparison with two representative varieties Cichorium intybus L. cv. Puna and Cichorum int ybus cv. Commander. The main results show that:1. A study on variations of 14 morphologic features of Cichorium intybus L. showed that there were extensive variations in morhology.Among those features, third grade fertile tillers number showed the most significant variance. It's from 22.25 to 430.00 at a variance coefficient of 55.64%. Followed by inflorescence number and leaf width, variance coefficient is 54.85% and 45.44% respectively.And inflorescence length,leaf length, second grade fertile tillers number, fertile tillers height, inflorescence width, plant height, internode diameter of stem elongation,internode diameter of blooming stages and 1000-seed-weight showed medium variances. Variance coefficient is 30.72%,29.43%,28.63%,27.43%,27.16%,25.83%,19.60%.19.24% and 13.15% respectively. Length and width of seed showed the smallest variance. Variance coefficient is 11.39% and 10.27%.2.There was a significant correlation among morphological features. Accessions with narrow and long leaves have a higher plant height and fertile tillers height and were more in fertile tillers and inflorescence number. And the seeds were slender and plump and relatively heavier in 1000-seed-weight and good in seeding. Clustering analysis showed those accessions can be divided into 3 groups. Accessions from different regions with similar characteristics were put into same group. Accessions put into same group together with other 2 comparison varieties had highly-developed lateral roots and were more in inflorescence number and higher. Also the length and width of leaf and inflorescence were great and seed were short and wide.3.Tested Chicory for the shortest growth period of germplasm PI651935, only 254 days.The longest for the Cichorum int ybus cv. Commander for 296 days, after a difference of 42 days.Growth period is the Cichorium intybus L. cv. Puna for 295 days.Germplasm material from all foreign countries to weather conditions the pilot can normally complete the reproductive period, indicating that all imported materials, can better adapt to the local eco-climatic conditions.4.A total of 333 alleles were detected at 28 loci with an average of 11.89.The rate of polymorphic sites(P) was 95.09%;the polymorphic information content (PIC) ranged from 0.23 (me3+em3) to 0.44 (me1+em10) with an average of 0.33. The genetic similarity (GS) among all accessions ranged from 0.55 to 0.89 with an average of 0.69. For all geographical groups GS value ranged from 0.63 to 0.96. Among these groups, a high genetic diversity was observed in Netherlands(P,95.52%) and Italy(P,95.38%) group. These results suggested that there was a high genetic diversity among all Cichorium intybus L. accessions tested.Based on the cluster and principal component analyses,48 accessions could be divided into five groups according to the nearest phylogenetic relationship, and accessions from the same geographical groups were classified into same group associated with their geographical distributions.