| Abstract: | Balsaminaceae family comprises more than 1000 species, among them five species are present in Europe. There are 4 species in Lithuania, one of them is cultivated – Impatiens balsamina L., two species are known as aliens – Impatiens parviflora DC., Impatiens glandulifera L. and only one is growing naturally – Impatiens noli-tangere L. Valuable information might be obtained comparing adaptation level and variability of alien species and native ones. In Lithuania, molecular studies have been carried out only for invasive species of Impatiens, so the objective of this study was to evaluate the genetic variability of populations of Impatiens noli-tangere differing in geography or habitats by the randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD). Plants were collected from – Kaunas-Grabučiškiai, Kaunas-Marvelė, Kaunas-Raudondvaris, Kaunas-Romainiai, Varėna- Puvočiai, Seredžius, Rusnė, Juodkrantė, Palanga-Plazė, Plateliai, Kelmė-Šventragis, Kryžkalnis, Rokiškis-Panemunėlis, Jonava-Upininkai, Anykščiai. For I. noli-tangere studies eight different oligonucleotide primers (OPA-20, OPD-20, 222, 250, 269, 340, 474, 516) were used. Among populations of I. noli-tangere genetic parameters ranged in the following intervals: 3–15 % of polymorphic DNA bands, 0.005–0.049 for Nei’s gene diversity, 0.009–0.074 for Shannon’s information index. Pairwise genetic distances between populations ranged in the interval 0.185– 0.467. Genetic distance-based cluster analyses for 220 individuals indicated 7 major groups of populations (A – Kaunas-Grabučiškiai; B – Palanga-Plazė, Kryžkalnis, Kaunas-Raudondvaris; C – Anykščiai, Kelmė-Šventragis, Seredžius, Kaunas-Marvelė; D – Rokiškis-Panemunėlis, Rusnė; E – Juodkrantė, Plateliai; F – Kaunas-Raudondvaris; G – Jonava-Upininkai, Varėna-Puvočiai) among which there was no clear geographical pattern. [...] |
