Objective: Goji (fruits of Lycium spp.) is commonly consumed as food and medicine. The increasing market demand for goji has led to its wide cultivation and broad breeding, which might cause loss of genetic diversity. This study aims to uncover the genetic diversity of the cultivated and wild Lycium. Methods: The chloroplast genome (CPG) of 34 accessions of Chinese food-medicinal Lycium spp., including the popular cultivars and their wild relatives, was re-sequenced and assembled, based on which the genetic diversity was evaluated. Results: Sequence structural comparison shows that CPG is comparatively conserved within species. Phylogenetic analysis indicates that CPG is sufficient for the discrimination of Lycium species; combined with nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (Nr ITS) sequences, materials with mixed genetic backgrounds can be identified. Nucleotide diversity analysis reveals that the modern cultivars are probably with a common maternal parent, while the wild accessions are with higher level of genetic diversity. Conclusion: For the first time this study reveals the intraspecies genetic diversity of Lycium spp. using CPG, highlighting the urgent conservation demand of wild genetic resources of Lycium. Our study also demonstrates that CPG provides crucial evidence for identification of Lycium species with mixed genetic backgrounds and highlights the importance of the wild relatives in genetic diversity conservation. This CPG-based technology will contribute to the sustainable development of medicinal plants broadly.
关键词:
基因组; 栽培变种; 食药同源;遗传多样性; 枸杞;野生近亲
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Project Supported:
This study was supported by the International Postdoctoral Exchange Fellowship Program (No. YJ20180044), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2019M660552), CAMS Initiative for Innovative Medicine (No. 2016-I2M-2-003), CAMS Innovation Fund for Medical Sciences (No. CIFMS 2021-I2M-1-032), and Introducing Talents Start-up Fund of Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Ruyu Yao a, d,, Bin Wang a, b,, Michael Heinrich c, Qiuling Wang a,*, Peigen Xiao a,*. Genetic diversity of food-medicinal Lycium spp. in China: Insights from chloroplast genome[J]. Chinese Herbal Medicines (CHM),2024,16(3):401-411
