Cultivar Identification and Genetic Diversity of Chinese Bayberry (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Myrica rubra</Emphasis>) Accessions Based on Fluorescent SSR Markers

A collection of 122 Chinese bayberry accessions and one wax myrtle (Myrica cerifera L.) were analyzed with 14 polymorphic simple sequence repeats (SSRs). The average number of alleles per locus was 9.3, and polymorphism information content varied from 0.07 to 0.83, with a mean value of 0.62. The genetic relationships among the 123 accessions were analyzed using the unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic mean (UPGMA). The similarity among all the accessions, based on Dice’s coefficient, varied from 0.78 to 0.99, and 0.74 between the Chinese bayberries and wax myrtle. A set of 122 Chinese bayberries clustered into four groups, with the first group further divided into six subgroups. The accessions originating from the same geographical region were more closely related than those from different regions, although extensive gene flow has taken place. The Mantel test, used to compare similarity matrices calculated from AFLP and SSR data, showed that their combination could provide information on the genetic relationship among the Chinese bayberry accessions. Ten selected SSR markers were able to distinguish most accessions, and multiplex PCR systems were developed. In addition, we found that SSRs developed from Chinese bayberry are transferable to M. cerifera.