Genetic diversity of radish (Raphanus sativus) germplasms and relationships among worldwide accessions analyzed with AFLP markers

Abstract

Radish (Raphanus sativus L.) is a useful vegetable with diverse features and worldwide distribution; however, the diversification and domestication history of cultivated radish has not been well documented. In order to understand genetic relationships among radishes around the world and the resulting diversity, we analyzed 65 accessions of cultivated radish collected from 21 Eurasian and North African countries using 221 amplified fragment-length polymorphism (AFLP) markers. These accessions formed four groups according to their provenance (Europe, Middle East, South Asia, and East Asia) in a neighbor-joining (NJ) tree. Despite geographical barriers, there might thus be a frequent exchange of germplasms within each region. The average genetic diversity did not differ significantly among the groups, ranging from 0.267 (Middle East) to 0.297 (East Asia), indicating that no obvious bottleneck effect in each region has occurred during the spread of this species.