Genetic structure in Emphasis Type="Italic"Pinus

Authors: Bertalan Lendvay Mária Höhn Sabine Brodbeck Marcel Mîndrescu Felix Gugerli

Publish Date: 2014/07/10

Volume: 10, Issue: 5, Pages: 1419-1433

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Abstract

Genetic differentiation of scattered populations at neutral loci is characterized by genetic drift counteracted by the remaining gene flow Populations of Pinus cembra in the Carpathian Mountains are isolated and restricted to islandlike stands at highelevation mountain ranges In contrast paleobotanical data suggest an extended early Holocene distribution of P cembra in the Carpathians and its surrounding areas which has contracted to the currently disjunct occurrences We analyzed the genetic variation of 11 Carpathian populations of P cembra at chloroplast and in part newly developed nuclear microsatellites Both marker types revealed low levels of genetic differentiation and a lack of isolation by distance reflecting the postglacial retraction of the species to its current distribution Stronger effects of genetic drift were implied by the higher genetic differentiation found for haploid chloroplast than for diploid nuclear markers Moreover we found no association between the values of population genetic differentiation for the two marker types Several populations indicated recent genetic bottlenecks and inbreeding as a consequence of decline in population sizes Moreover we found individuals in two populations from the Rodnei Mountains that strikingly differed in assignment probabilities from the remaining specimens suggesting that they had been introduced from a provenance outside the studied populations Comparison with Eastern Alpine P cembra and individuals of the closely related Pinus sibirica suggests that these individuals presumably are P sibirica Our study highlights the importance of the maintenance of sufficiently large local population sizes for conservation due to low connectivity between local occurrences

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