Genetic differentiation of Lilium longiflorum Thunb. var. scabrum Masam. (Liliaceae) in Taiwan using random amplified polymorphic DNA and morphological characters

Lilium longiflorum Thunb. var. scabrum Masam. is distributed along the nort hern, eastern, and southern coasts of Taiwan and in some of the outlying is lets. It exhibits large amounts of morphological variation among population s in different habitats. Five populations were examined in the present stud y. In addition to a morphological study, RAPD were used to determine whethe r the observed morphological variation has a genetic basis and to investiga te the variation pattern from different latitudes and different geographica l locations. The results of the morphological analyses gave some indication of clinal trends; however, no conclusions can be made because of the limit ed number of populations studied. In the RAPD study, 140 primers were scree ned, 9 of which were selected to analyze in all of the samples. The results revealed that, with the exception of the islet Sansientai population, the closer the geographical locations of populations, the closer were their gen etic relationships. The exception of islet Sansientai may result from the i nterruption of gene flow and the effect of genetic drift due to the small s ize of this islet's population. AMOVA analysis on RAPD data revealed that, of the total variation in the species, 14.08% was attributable to populatio n differences and 85.92% to individual differences within populations when all populations were treated as belonging to a single region. The among pop ulation variance component was shown to be highly significant (P<0.001). Wh en two northern populations were treated as a region and the other populati ons as another region, the result of AMOVA showed that the percentages of v ariation attributable to the differences between regions, among populations within regions, and among individuals within populations were 5.94% (p<0.0 01), 10.18% (p<0.001), and 83.88% (p<0.001), respectively.