ISSR variation within and among wild Brassica juncea populations: implication for herbicide resistance evolution

There is a need to understand whether weed genetic diversity is the same among different populations, especially between those exposed to herbicide selection and other without exposure history. Inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) were used to assess level and patterns of genetic diversity in wild Brassica juncea (L.) Czern. et Coss. populations. A total of 93 plants from 24 wild populations in China were analysed by eight primers resulting in 86 highly reproducible ISSR bands. The analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) with distances among individuals corrected for the dominant nature of ISSRs showed that most of the variation (54.09%) occurred among populations, and the remaining 45.91% variance was attributed to differences among individuals within populations. The high differentiation was, perhaps, due to limited gene flow (Nm < 1.0) of this species. Though highest gene diversity was observed in resistant B. juncea population, the overall distribution of diversity across China was not geographic dependent. High F (ST) value (0.541) corroborated AMOVA partitioning and provided significant evidence for population differentiation in wild B. juncea. UPGMA cluster analyses, based on Nei's genetic distance, revealed grouping pattern geographically. Based on these results, the factors affect weed population genetic diversity and implication for herbicide resistance evolution were discussed in the context of transgenic crops advent and increasing herbicide usage in China.