ABSTRACT
By the method of RAPD fingerprinting, this paper studied the DNA fingerprinting structure of plankton community and its relations to the main environmental physical-chemical factors at five sites in Donghu Lake. From the screened 9 random primers, a total of 210 observable bands with a length of 150-2 000 bp were amplified, 93.3% of which were polymorphic. At the five sites, the average number of amplified bands was 42, with the maximum (53) at site IV and the minimum (35) at site V. The PO4(3-)-P and TP contents were the highest at site I, NH4(+)-N, TN and NO2(-)-N contents were the highest at site V, while the values of all test physical-chemical parameters were the lowest at site IV. No obvious differences in COD, alkalinity, rigidity, and calcium content were observed among the study sites. Similarity clustering analysis showed that the DNA fingerprinting of plankton community based on RAPD marker could cluster the five sites into two groups, i. e., sites I, II and III could be clustered into one group, while sites IV and V could be clustered into another group, which was consistent with the clustering analysis based on the main environmental physical-chemical factors. In conclusion, there was a close relation between the DNA fingerprinting structure of plankton community and the main environmental physical-chemical factors in Donghu Lake.