Phenotypic Variation and Genetic Diversity in the Collections of Erianthus Arundinaceus (Retz.) Jesw.

In order to provide information for further research and utilization of Erianthus arundinaceus (Retz.) Jesw., the phenotypic variation and genetic diversity in the collection of E. arundinaceus (Retz.) Jesw. germplasm in Guangxi, China were investigated. The coefficient of variation (CV) in four quantitative traits, plant height, stalk diameter, spikelet length and number of panicle nodes, of 50 E. arundinaceus (Retz.) Jesw. clones ranged from 12.71 to 16.14 %, stalk diameter had the highest coefficient of variation, followed by spikelet length, and number of panicle nodes showed the lowest. Fifteen start condon targeted polymorphism (SCoT) marker primers were used to assess the genetic diversity of the 50 collections of E. arundinaceus (Retz.) Jesw. germplasm. A total of 336 genotypes were investigated for SCoT polymorphism, which produced 284 amplicons with 83.97 % polymorphism, indicating that E. arundinaceus (Retz.) Jesw. germplasm had abundant diversity in Guangxi. The Jaccard’s similarity coefficients among these accessions varied from 0.61 to 0.88 with an average of 0.71. The UPGMA clustering analysis showed the 50 E. arundinaceus (Retz.) Jesw. accessions could be divided into four major groups at the similarity coefficient level 0.73. The UPGMA dendrogram reflected the geographic distribution patterns of these accessions.