Genetic diversity of Lithuanian populations of Impatiens parviflora DC, evaluated according to several type DNA markers

Abstract

Small balsam (Impatiens parviflora) is one of the most invasive species in Europe, which has been L)introduced to this continent from Central Asia and continues to spread rapidly. In Northern Europe, the invasion of I. parviflora started later than in the rest of Europe. Within recent decades I. parviflora became one of the most aggressive alien plant species of Lithuania and it is widely spread in the other Baltic States. The objective of our study was to estimate molecular diversity Lithuanian populations of I. parviflora using set of dominant and co-dominant DNA markers (the work was sponsored by Lithuania Research Council). To cover aII the territory of Lithuanra, 27 population of I. parviflora has been sampled. In each site, up to 16 individuals of I. parviflora individuals were sampled and examined by capillary electrophoresis (by ABI 3130 genetic analyser), polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and agarose gel electrophoresis. In total, over 300 individuals were studied. Eight pairs of amplified fragment length polymorphism primers, 6 pairs of simple sequence repeat (SSR) primers, 8 randomly amplified polymorphic DNA primers and 4 inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR) primers were used. The least informative appeared to be SSR loci. Principal coordinate analyses did not group populations according to the geographic location. Mantel test outcomes were in agreement to it. Bayessian analyses of the data generated by different DNA markers, demonstrated that invasion of I. parviflora in Lithuania might be consequence of muitiple introductions.