Genetic And Epigenetic Population Structure Of Gentiana Jamesii

Conservation genetics, which combines the conservation biology and molecular genetics, is one of the research hotspot in biology. In the present study, we assessed the genetic and epigenetic structure of Gentiana jamesii in different attitude of Changbai Mountain by using the amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) and methylation-sensitive amplification polymorphism (MSAP) techniques. In addition, we have discussed its possible correlation with the elevations.According to the AFLP results, the species G. jamesii exhibited high genetic diversity. The fifteen selected primers combinations generated 664 reproducible bands, of which, 439 were polymorphic. The average percentage of polymorphic bands is 65.99 % and the Shannon information index is 0.326. Meanwhile, the twelve selected MSAP primer pairs produced 550 reproducible bands. Based on the analysis of methylation-sensitive polymorphisms (MSP), the average percentage of polymorphic bands is 54.73 % and the Shannon information index is 0.29. It indicated that the species G. jamesii showed high epigenetic diversity. Furthermore, the average methylated percentage of CG and CHG is 36.87 %, suggesting the species showed high percentage of methylation. Additionally, as showing in the Structure and PAUP analyses, the genetic structure and methylation level of G. jamesii has positive correlations with elevations. These findings revealed that the species G. jamesii modified its genetic and epigenetic structure to sense and adapt to the environmental conditions.Based on the above results, we assessed the genetic and epigenetic structure of G. jamesii in Changbai Mountain. It will be useful in future studies of conservation genetics.