Nutria (Myocastor coypus) is a large rodent native to South America which was introduced worldwide originally with the intention of fur farming. Three colour forms (Standard, Moravian Silver, and Prestice Multicolour) fall into the Farm Animal Genetic Resources of the Czech Republic protected by the National Programme on Conservation and Utilization of Plant, Animal and Microbial Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture coordinated by the National Focal Point. The objective of our investigation in the Czech Republic was to establish microsatellite panel for nutria and determine microsatellite variability in the local nutria population, levels of genetic diversity within and among subpopulations with respect to colour form and the levels of inbreeding within subpopulations. The genetic variability was studied in 64 animals by investigating 11 microsatellite markers (McoD214, McoD217, McoD59, McoD69, McoC124, McoC203, McoD60, McoB17, McoC118, McoA04, and McoD228) analysed by multicoloured capillary electrophoresis. The whole population showed a moderate level of genetic variability in terms of number of alleles (5 alleles per locus) or heterozygosity (50.4%) and the Prestice Multicolour form exhibited the highest level of diversity. Particular attention should be paid to organizing mate to minimise inbreeding, especially in the Standard colour form (F_IS = 0.238) which showed the highest level of inbreeding out of the three colour forms. High combined exclusion probability (CEP) values (99.5, 94.5, and 99.9%) implied that the panel of microsatellite markers established in this study was usable for individual identification or routine parentage testing in nutria population in the Czech Republic.  

We investigated the genetic structure of three phenotypically distinct ecotypic groups of Norway spruce (Picea abies) belonging to three elevational classes; namely, low- (acuminata), medium- (europaea), and high-elevation (obovata) form, each represented by 150 trees. After rigorous filtering, we used 1916 Genotyping-by-Sequencing generated SNPs for analysis. Outputs from three multivariate analysis methods (Bayesian clustering algorithm implemented in STRUCTURE, Principal Component Analysis, and the Discriminant Analysis of Principal Components) indicated the presence of a distinct genetic cluster representing the high-elevation ecotypic group. Our findings bring a vital message to forestry practice affirming that artificial transfer of forest reproductive material, especially for stands under harsh climate conditions, should be considered with caution.

Norway spruce is a widespread and economically highly important tree species in Central Europe which occurs there in different morphotypic forms (also known as ecotypes). Previously established common garden experiments indicated that the morphological differentiation is most likely genetically determined. The genetic structure of Norway spruce morphological variants might be an indicator (marker) of specific sustainability in forest ecosystems. In this study, we investigated 436 individuals from autochthonous populations belonging to three different ecotypes. The main aim was to evaluate a level of genetic intra and interpopulation diversity among the low, medium and high-elevation ecotypes using both expressed sequence tag simple sequence repeats (EST – SSR) and genomic SSR markers. Sixteen highly polymorphic microsatellite loci folded in two newly designed multiplexes were used to depicture the genetic structure of targeted trees. Important allele frequency parameters, such as the mean expected (0.722, SE = 0.061) and observed (0.585, SE = 0.062) heterozygosity and mean effective number of alleles (Ne = 5.943, SE = 1.279), were estimated. The low genetic differentiation detected among different ecotypes (Fst = 0.008) was further discussed and clarified.

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