Genetic Structure and Diversity of Parental Cultivars Involved in China Mainland Sugarcane Breeding Programs as Inferred from DNA Microsatellites

To understand genetic structure and diversity of parental cultivars involved in China Mainland sugarcane breeding programs, 92 elite parents and 4 wild relatives were genotyped with 18 microsatellite DNA markers. The genetic similarity （GS） values among the cultivars ranged from 0.346 to 0.960 with an average of 0.533. Among the introduced cultivars, India accessions had the closest genetic distance to China Mainland accessions （0.447）, while Australia accessions have the furthest distance （0.503）. A comparison of allelic diversity among geographical origins showed that there were 22 China Mainland specific alleles, of which 28% were derived from native S. spontaneaum germplasm in China. Model-based genetic structure, clustering, and principal components analyses consistently revealed there were five groups within the 96 accessions. Groups 1, 2, 4, and 5 consisted of all cultivars and group 3 only contained wild germplasm. Group 2 was characterized as the Introduction group with 46 cultivars predominantly introduced from Australia, Taiwan of China, India, and USA. Groups 1, 4, and 5 consisted of cultivars mostly originated from China Mainland, defined as the Complex group, Yacheng lines group, and F134/CP72-1210 group, respectively, upon their pedigree. By understanding the genetic relationships among the parental cultivars, breeders can gain a rational basis for expanding the gene pool and select the best parental accessions for crossing.

Microsatellite DNA Variation of the Gametophyte Clones Isolated from Introduced Laminaria japonica (Phaeophyta) and L. longissima of China and Varieties Derived from them

The variation of 90 Laminaria gametophyte clones representing the introduced Laminaria japonica （Group 1） and Laminaria Iongissima （Group 2）, the varieties of L. japonica （Group 3） and the varieties derived from interspecific hybrids （Group 4） was determined with 18 microsatellite markers. The allelic diversity and Nei＇s gene diversity of Group 1 were significantly higher than those of Group 2 （2.9 vs. 1.8 and 0.414 vs. 0.161, respectively）, demonstrating that the variation of the introduced L. japonica is richer than that of L. Iongissima. Both allelic diversity and Nei＇s gene diversity of Group 3 were lower than those of Group 1, indicating that only a portion of variation of L. japonica was incorporated into the varieties of L. japonica. Significant genetic differentiation was detected between four groups and between female （Population 1 ） and male （Population 2） gametophyte clones in each group. The variation among groups accounted for 39.95%, while that among populations accounted for 21.65% of the total. The genetic distance between Group 1 and Group 4 was obviously longer than that between Group 2 and Group 4 （0.686 vs. 0.291）, indicating that maternal gametophyte clone contributed more variation to the hybrids than the paternal gametophyte clone did.

Analysis of the Genetic Diversity and Origin of Some Chinese Domestic Duck Breeds

Twelve fluorescence-labeled microsatellite markers were used to analyze the genetic diversity of 12 domestic duck breeds and 2 wild duck breeds to determine the relationship and origin of Chinese domestic duck breeds. Gene frequency, effective number of alleles （Ne）, expected heterozygosity （He）, polymorphism information contents （PIC）, inbreeding coefficient in population （Fis）, standard genetic distance （Ds）, and genetic distance （DA） were calculated by FSTAT and distance and phylogenetic analysis after the dates which were output from the Microsatellite-Toolkit software. Genetic distances between 12 domestic duck breeds and 2 wild duck breeds were analyzed by variance analysis. Unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean （UPGMA） and phylogenetic trees used for cluster analysis were structured. The results indicated that 11 loci had medium- or high-level genetic diversity among the 12 loci, which could be efficiently used in the detection of the genetic parameters of each population. The values of He were 0.5414 to 0.7343, those of PIC proved similar, and those of Fis were 0.1101 to 0.3381 among all populations. All breeds were clustered into three groups by UPGMA phylogenetic trees. Banzui duck was clustered into a separate group. Differences of the DA were analysed by t-test. The results showed that difference in DA between the 12 domestic duck breeds and Lvtou duck and the Banzui duck were very significant （P〈0.01）, indicating that these 12 domestic duck breeds originated from Lvtou wild duck, but not Banzui duck.

QTL Detection on Chromosome 6 in Landrace×Lantang Pig Resource Population

A resource population constructed by F2 design with Landrace and Chinese indigenous Lantangpigs was used in this study. Seven microsatellite DNA markers on chromosome 6 and USDA2.6 piggenetic linkage map were used for interval QTL mapping. The results revealed that at theposition of 38-41 cM there was a chromosome-wide highly significant QTL affecting carcassbackfat A thickness (P < 0.01), which was closely linked with MN007 and the ratio of QTL addi-tive variance to F2 phenotypic variance was 5.90%. At the position of 60-70 cM there were twochromosome-wide significant QTLs affecting carcass lean percentage (P < 0.01) and skin and fatpercentage (P < 0.05), which were closely linked with MN003 and the ratio of QTL additivevariance to F2 phenotypic variance were 18.44 and 3.75%, respectively. At the same position,there was a single-point QTL also closely linked with MN003 and highly significantly (P < 0.01)affecting carcass lean. In addition, there were two chromosome-wide highly significant (P < 0.01)QTLs affecting meat color and marbling, which were closely linked with MN13 at the positionof 70-75 cM and the ratio of QTL additive variance to F2 phenotypic variance were 14.05and 1.77%, respectively.