Abstract:

Eleven plants（#1 to #11）of Cerasus were selected to study the botanical characters of organs including flower，leaf and fruit. The genetic relationships and species identification were analyzed through simple sequence repeat（SSR）molecular marker technique and DNA barcode technology. The morphological result showed that there was little difference among #1，#3，#4，#7，#8 and #9. Their fruit colors were all in purple-black，while calyx tube shapes of #1，#4 and #8 were tubular and petioles of #1 and #4 had more short hair. There was no difference in fruit color in #5，#6 and #11，which was purple-red. But #6 had longer sepal than calyx tube，#11 had more short hair. In addition，the result indicated that #2 and #4 were significantly different from other traits in phenotype. We predicted that #1 and #4 were Cerasus serrulata var. pubescen，#3，#7 and #9 were C. serrulata，#6 was C. dielsiana，#11 wasC. schneideriana，#10 might be C. maximowiczii，while #2，#5 and #8 were uncertain. The results of SSR clustering analysis showed that more similar in morphology，the closer genetic relationship these plants had. #5 was supposed to be a variation of C. schneideriana or C. dielsiana and #8 might be C. serrulata. DNA barcode analysis revealed that ITS sequence could be defined as a standard barcode in C. identification because ITS sequences were various from species greatly. The ITS clustering results were identical with SSR clustering. Sequence alignments proved #8 was C. serrulata or variation，#5 was supposed to be the variation of C. schneideriana or C. dielsiana，but #2 was still unknown due to the lack of information from NCBI database. Whether #2 is a new species or a variation requires further studies. Moreover，#2 and #5 might be the variations with higher ornamental value. This research provided an important reference for Cerasus identification，species classification and selection through morphological classification，SSR molecular marker and DNA barcoding technology.

Key words: Cerasus, SSR, DNA barcode, species identification