Abstract: Amplified fragment length polymorphism（AFLP）markers were employed to assess the
genetic diversity and relationship of 110 spinach（Spinacia oleracea L.）germplasms from different
geographical origins. Among the 882 polymorphic bands obtained from 20 selective primer pairs，228
（23.6%）of them was polymorphic. The genetic similarity ranged from 0.64 to 0.87 for all germplasms
accessions. Nei’s gene diversity index ranged from 0.1887 to 0.2501 for different populations，with the
total value of 0.2830. Shannon information index varied from 0.2789 to 0.3793，with the total value of
0.4337. UPGMA Cluster suggested genetic relationship of all the accessions were significantly related to
their geographical origins. The results of PCA、UPGMA and based Nei’s gene diversity of populations
clustering analysis exhibited a good consistency with UPGMA，and were also consistent with geographical
origins. All the accessions were classified and clustered into two major groups. Group 1 was comprised of
the spinach originated in European，America，West Asia，East Asia and Northern China，whereas group
2 was comprised of the spinach originated in the Southern China and Japan. The results suggested that
Northern and Southern Chinese spinach population may have different origins.

Key words: Spinacia oleracea L., genetic diversity, genetic relationship, AFLP