Abstract:Based on the transcriptome data of Diospyros morrisiana seedlings, 1620 pairs of polymorphic EST- SSR molecular markers were developed using CandiSSR software. The genetic diversity of 157 wild plants from 8 natural provenances was evaluated using 15 pairs of EST-SSR molecular markers randomly selected. The results showed that the transcriptome dataset contained 100 285 Unigene sequences with a total length of 98 738 602 bp; among them, 34 121 SSR loci were identified, with a frequency of 34.02%, approximately one SSR locus every 2.89 kb. The 15 pairs of EST-SSR primers with good polymorphism had a polymorphism information content (PIC) ranging from 0.244 to 0.877, with an average of 0.623, and 12 loci were highly polymorphic (PIC: 0.543-0.788). The observed heterozygosity of the 8 wild populations of D. morrisiana based on 15 pairs of EST-SSR primers ranged from 0.503 to 0.650, the expected heterozygosity ranged from 0.574 to 0.610, and the Shannon diversity index ranged from 1.072 to 1.245, indicating moderate genetic diversity. The majority of the genetic variation in the wild populations of D. morrisiana occurred within the populations (83.29%), and there was extensive gene flow among the populations, with a relatively close genetic relationship. These would provide technical support and scientific basis for the evaluation of germplasm resources, genetic diversity analysis, and molecular marker-assisted breeding of D. morrisiana.
