• Journal of Life Science
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• v.20 no.7
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• pp.983-990
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• 2010

Genus Spiraea is a woody species primarily distributed throughout Asia. Many species of this genus are important plants medicinally and ecologically. I evaluated a representative sample of the sixteen taxa with random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers to estimate genetic relationships within genus Spiraea. In addition, RAPD analysis was also conducted to estimate the genetic diversity and population structure of these species. As the typical populations of Spiraea were small, isolated, and patchily distributed for natural populations, they maintained a low level of genetic diversity for polymorphic primers. The mean H was 0.117 across species. The Korean endemic species (S. chartacea) and patchily distributed species (S. betulifolia) showed fewer alleles per locus (mean 1.240 vs. 1.297), lower percent polymorphic locus (24.0 vs. 29.7), and lower diversity (0.092 vs. 0.121) than a relatively widely spread species. An assessment of the proportion of diversity present within species, $H_{POP}/H_{SP}$, indicated that about 87.8% the total genetic diversity was among species. Thus, the majority of genetic variation (87.8%) resided within species. The phylogenic tree showed three distinct groups. One clade includes S. prunifolia for. simpliciflora, S. thunbergii, S. chamaedryfolia var. ulmifolia, S. media, and S. cantoniensis. Another clade includes S. blumei, S. pubescens, S. chartacea, and S. chinensis. The other clade is the remaining seven species.