Genetic Diversity of White Clover (Trifolium Repens L.) from the Urban Area of Rīga Baltā Āboliņa (Trifolium Repens L.) Ģenētiskā Daudzveidība Rīgas Pilsētvidē

Abstract White clover (Trifolium repens L.) is well represented in the urban environment and wide areas. The goal of this study was to compare the genetic features and to determine the genetic distances and similarities between some populations of white clover using iPBS (inter primer binding sites) technique in a retrotransposon-based method in samples from ecologically different areas in Latvia. Comparisons were made between three plant groups: urban environment (different areas in Rīga), Latvian countryside territory (four different localities), and the commercial variety ‘Daile’. The Shannon diversity index was not high (0.2974 for Rīga, 0.3079 in countryside territories, and 0.3367 for the variety ‘Daile’), but the polymorphic bands present in all evaluated plant sets were higher than 89%. Using principal coordinates analysis the white clover formed three clusters. One cluster included plants from the variety ‘Daile’. The plants from Rīga urban area and different sites of Latvia formed two clusters.