Microsatellite polymorphisms in natural populations of Arabidopsis thaliana in Japan

Abstract

Microsatellite polymorphisms of Arabidopsis thaliana were surveyed for 29 loci using 12 Japanese natural populations as material. All the individuals examined were homozygous at all the microsatellite loci. Although there was considerable variation among populations, no intra-population polymorphism was detected in three selected populations when eight loci were studied. The microsatellites examined proved to be a suitable genetic marker for studying the genetic variation among natural populations of Arabidopsis thaliana. To compare the genetic similarity and infer the evolutionary relationships among populations, neighbor-joining trees were constructed on the basis of distance matrices calculated by two different methods. Genetic relationships among the populations as revealed in the trees do not necessarily correspond to their geographic relationships. This may reflect their different origins or different times of introduction into the Islands of Japan.