Molecular variation of Antarctic grass Deschampsia antarctica Desv. from King George Island [Antarctica]

Deschampsia antarctica Desv. plants collected on King George Islands (Antarctica) at two localities that differ in topographic and nutrition conditions exhibited morphological variation that differentiated plants of both locations. The molecular variation characteristic to individuals of both sites was tested using AFLP approach in order to verify whether morphological variation characteristic to the plants resulted from environmental factors or possibly from differences at the DNA level. Four primer pair combinations were used to generate 339 AFLP fragments, 132 of which were polymorphic and allowed evaluation of genetic relationships among D. antarctica individuals. Chi-square test revealed that only 12 signals were discriminative for the plants from both locations. Cluster analysis conducted on these AFLP fragments demonstrated that plants from the location rich in biogenes were more polymorphic than those from poor one. Our data suggest that the phenotypic variation specific to plants of both locations seem to be the result of adaptation to the environmental conditions like soil and moisture rather than reflect genetic differences.