Genetic diversity and population structure of Stipa bungeana, an endemic species in Loess Plateau of China, revealed using combined ISSR and SRAP markers.

Sequence-related amplified polymorphism (SRAP) and inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers were used to assess the genetic diversity within and among 15 natural populations of Stipa bungeana from the Loess Plateau of China. Using 15 SRAP primers, 504 (99.80%) polymorphic loci were detected, and 372 polymorphic loci (96.12%) were identified using 15 ISSR primers. At the species level, the S. bungeana populations showed relatively low levels of genetic diversity (HE = 0.2017 for SRAP; HE = 0.2066 for ISSR). The results of analysis of molecular variance indicated that genetic variation within populations (42.02% for SRAP and 38.40% for ISSR) is lower than that among populations (57.98% for SRAP and 61.60% for ISSR). The genetic distance was significantly correlated with geographical distance by the Mantel test (r = 0.3978, P = 0.002). Our results demonstrated that both SRAP and ISSR markers are effective and reliable for assessing the genetic diversity of S. bungeana. In addition, these data inform conservation and breeding strategies for S. bungeana.