Predominance of a single clone of the most widely distributed bamboo species Phyllostachys edulis in East Asia

Abstract

Phyllostachys edulis, one of the most dominant bamboo species with the leptomorph rhizome system, has been asexually expanding its range into adjacent natural forest sites by shooting new culms. The resulting ecological problems include simplification of stand structure and decline in the species diversity of local flora. In this study, the genetic diversity of P. edulis for the entire distribution range from Japan to China was analyzed using 16 microsatellite markers. Among these, 12 loci were fixed by a single allele, whereas only two alleles were detected for each of the remaining 4 loci; all adult samples shared the same genotype at all loci including the four heterozygous loci. These observations indicate that all current samples from Japan and China comprise an identical clone. The clone is distributed over more than 2,800 km with an estimated biomass of approximately 6.6 × 10(11) kg, which is exceptionally large. Among seedlings from flowering events in 2005 and 2006, 20 different genets were generated by recombination through selfing of a single flowering genet. Predominance of a single clone in the wild and a diverse composition of genets among seedlings suggest that the intermittent flowering of P. edulis in the wild has produced a variety of clones through recombination. However, the resulting seedlings cannot compete with other tree species or adult P. edulis, and almost all adult P. edulis growing in Japan and China likely propagated through vegetative reproduction of a single clone by human transplantation, and subsequently expanded into adjacent forest sites by shooting young sprouts. The relatively small size of the flowering area and rapid culm reproduction has led to the stability of P. edulis communities. However, the low genetic diversity is an important consideration for the long-term management of this prevailing bamboo species.

Development and Deployment of High-Throughput Retrotransposon-Based Markers Reveal Genetic Diversity and Population Structure of Asian Bamboo

“…However, with the advent of molecular marker-based techniques developed in the 1980s, studies on crop genetic diversity have gained momentum. Subsequently, from 1991, a relatively limited number of molecular fingerprinting studies have been carried out to assess the genetic diversity of the Asian bamboo species using restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP), [8,9], randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD), [10,11], amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP), [12][13][14][15][16], simple sequence repeats (SSRs), [17,18], expressed sequence tags-SSR (EST-SSR), [19,20], inter-simple sequence repeats (ISSRs), [15,21] and single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) [22].…”

Differences in the “egumi” taste of moso-bamboo shoots: research using chemical analysis and two types of taste sensors

“…As for the factors that caused differences in "egumi" taste depending on the region of production, the clones of moso-bamboo shoots in Japan are almost identical [29], therefore, the differences in taste is not related strain related. In addition, because the growth periods and sizes of the material were similar among at collection, these factors should not have greatly affected the taste.…”

Detecting latitudinal and altitudinal expansion of invasive bamboo Phyllostachys edulis and Phyllostachys bambusoides (Poaceae) in Japan to project potential habitats under 1.5°C–4.0°C global warming

“…A flowering interval of moso is 67 years (Watanabe, Ueda, Manabe, & Akai, ). Surprisingly, recent genetic analyses imply that moso bamboos of Japan and China (246 samples of 28 wild populations) comprise an identical clone, which is distributed over more than 2,800 km with an estimated biomass of approximately 6.6 × 10 11 kg (Isagi et al., ). Flowering of madake is rarer (120‐years interval; Janzen, ), and most seeds do not germinate (Watanabe et al., ).…”