Morphological and AFLP variation of Elymus repens (L.) Gould (Poaceae)

Combined morphological and molecular techniques were used to characterize variation in Elymus repens. We studied the morphological variability of E. repens in relation to the degree of its genetic differentiation, in order to unravel the causes of conspicuous intraspecific morphological variation. Four populations of E. repens from different habitats were analyzed for 35 morphological characters, and their genetic differentiation was assessed by Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism (AFLP). Four pairs of selective primers were used to detect a total of 279 AFLP bands, of which 104 (37.28%) were polymorphic between populations. Cluster analysis based on AFLP fingerprint data showed that individuals were arranged in population-specific groups. The analyses of variance (ANOVA and AMOVA) indicated significant morphological and genetic differentiation among populations (P<0.01). This study revealed low levels of AFLP variation, which suggests that conspicuous morphological variation of E. repens is caused by plasticity. E. repens is an evolutionarily young species, of hybrid origin, in which microevolutionary processes continue. This study showed that common analysis of genetic diversity and morphology is a powerful tool in low-level taxonomy.