Resource Status of Wild Hawthorn in Xinjiang and Research Progress of Genetic Diversity in Hawthorn

Abstract

Wild hawthorn is a rare wild plant resource endemic to the western Tianshan Mountain in Xinjiang, containing three species: Crataegus songorica, C. alorocarpa and C. sanguirnta. However, the area of wild hawthorn forest has shrunken under the disturbance of human activities, genetic diversity has also suffered serious damage. Therefore, it is urgent to carry out the present status investigation of genetic diversity and assess the genetic differentiation of geographic populations of wild hawthorns. This paper summarizes the resource status of wild hawthorn in Xinjiang and research progress of genetic diversity in hawthorn, and developed an approach to screen molecular markers of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and simple sequence repeat (SSR) using Restriction-site Associated DNA sequencing (RAD-seq). SNP and SSR markers will be used to assess genetic diversity, genetic differentiations and genetic relationships of different populations of wild hawthorns.