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Species distribution, genetic diversity and barcoding in the duckweed family (Lemnaceae)

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Abstract

Duckweeds are a family of aquatic flowering plants that have a high potential for environmental remediation and biofuel manufacture. Two hundred and twenty clones of duckweeds were collected in Hainan Island, China. Based on morphological and phylogenetic analyses of the chloroplast ribosomal protein S16 intron (rps16) and atpF-atpH intergenic spacer sequences, these clones were classified into four species belonging to four genera: Lemna aequinoctialis, Spirodela polyrhiza, Wolffia globosa, and Landoltia punctata. Eight community types including single-, bi-, and/or tri-species communities were observed. L. aequinoctialis was the most widely distributed of the four species. W. globosa has the highest genetic diversity followed by L. aequinoctialis, whereas S. polyrhiza and L. punctata did not show any significant diversity. Duckweeds collected from the south of Hainan had higher diversity than those from the north. Moreover, very high rates of transversional nucleotide substitutions were found in the rps16 sequences of L. aequinoctialis and W. globosa, which make these duckweeds special with respect to nucleotide substitutions.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the International Science and Technology Cooperation Program of China (2014DFA30680, 2011DFB31690) and the Hainan Provincial Science and Technology Key Program (ZDZX2013023-1-26). The introduction of the duckweed research topic and helpful suggestions by Prof. Eric Lam (Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, USA) to the Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences on the preparation of this manuscript is gratefully acknowledged. We thank Dr. Gotfried Jetschke, University of Jena for support with the statistical analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Tropical Bioscience and Biotechnology, MOA Key Laboratory of Tropical Crops Biology and Genetic Resources Utilization, Hainan Provincial Bioenergy Research Centre, CATAS, Xueyuan Road 4, Haikou, 571101, Hainan, China

    Yaliang Xu, Shuai Ma, Meng Huang, Ming Peng & Jiaming Zhang

  2. Institute of Plant Physiology, University of Jena, Dornburger Str. 159, 07743, Jena, Germany

    Manuela Bog & Klaus-J. Appenroth

  3. Amity Institute of Microbial Technology, Amity University Uttar Pradesh, Noida, 201303, India

    K. Sowjanya Sree

  4. College of Plant Sciences, Huazhong Agricultural University, Lion Mountain, Wuhan, 430070, China

    Yaliang Xu

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  1. Yaliang Xu
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  2. Shuai Ma
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  3. Meng Huang
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  4. Ming Peng
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Correspondence to Jiaming Zhang.

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Xu, Y., Ma, S., Huang, M. et al. Species distribution, genetic diversity and barcoding in the duckweed family (Lemnaceae). Hydrobiologia 743, 75–87 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-014-2014-2

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