A study of genetic variation and evolution of Phyllostachys (Bambusoideae: Poaceae) using nuclear restriction fragment length polymorphisms.

Phylogenetic and taxonomic difficulties are common within the woody bamboos, due to their unique life cycle, which severely limits the availability of floral characters. To addresss some of these problems, 20 species of woody bamboos in the genus Phyllostachys were analyzed using nuclear restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs). The RFLP data were used to generate genetic distances between all pairs of taxa and to examine the degree of genetic variation within and among bamboo species. The genetic distances were also used to create dendrograms of accessions and species. These trees supported the current division of the genus into two sections and provided some information on the thorny taxonomic problems in this group. We show that RFLPs can be used for species identification and the delineation of species limits.