Evaluation of populations of invasive in Lithuania Impatiens parviflora according to set of multilocus markers

Abstract

Phenomenon of invasion became very actual environmental topic since beginning of 20th century. It might due to intensification of transport routes between different countries and even continents. Intensional transportation was accompanied by occasional transfers of the seeds of plants expanding them from natural areas to new locations. Part of these plants survived only temporarily and later on died. Among them there was a small part of the strangers which started to expand their areas on behalf of local species. Till now clear mechanisms which might speed invasion process remains unknown. The most advanced attempts to explain routes of invasion include studies in molecular genetics of aliens [1]. In Lithuania similar to what was done in wide scope for the alien species, like Bunias orientalis, Medicago sativa, Erigeron annuus [2-4], Balsaminaceae species also started to be evaluated according to molecular diversity at randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR) loci. In Baltic countries, two very aggressive Balsaminaceae aliens are included into list of invasive species. Intensive world-wide research has been initiated evaluating molecular diversity of Impatiens glandulifera [5]. Till now much less attention has been paid for molecular studies of Impatiens parviflora, species which was former intensively examined employing morphological, physiological and phytosociological parameters. Our study aimed at evaluation of big set of I. parviflora populations distributed through all Lithuania to reflect geographical and habitat diversity range of the country. Six ISSR primers (ISSR1: (GGCC(AG)8, ISSR2: (GGCC(AC)8), ISSR3: (CCGG(AG)8), ISSR4: CCGG(AC)8; ISSR5: (GCGC(AG)8) and ISSR6: (GCGC(AC)8) were applied for our populations of I. parviflora as it is described in studies carried out in UK for I. glandulifera [5]. [...]