Effects of Landscape Fragmentation on Genetic Diversity of Male-Biased Dioecious Plant Pistacia chinensis Bunge Populations

Abstract

Pistacia chinensis Bunge (Anacardiaceae) is a dioecious woody plant of significant economic values that is used in traditional Chinese Medicine as well as for wood production. More importantly, it is one of the ideal tree species for bio-diesel production because of the high oil content in its seeds. In this study, we aim to reveal the effects of landscape fragmentation on the genetic diversity (GD) of the dioecious plant Pistacia chinensis populations. A total of nine microsatellites were used to genotype 180 P. chinensis individuals from six populations to estimate the differences in GD between different populations. The study revealed that genetic diversity of the P. chinensis population as a whole is relatively high in the Thousand-Island Lake (TIL) region, but its fragmented landscape still led to the loss of rare alleles, especially in a fragmented small population, a post-fragmented population, and a male population. The partitioning of a large continuous population into small isolated remnant patches led to the direct loss of genetic diversity and, subsequently, because of the mediated gene flow of seeds and pollen, genetic drift, and the spatial distribution of existing plants, the GD gradually decreased. The restricted gene flow and the increase in self-pollination and inbreeding impaired the population’s long-term development. Therefore, the wild P. chinensis populations in the TIL region needs effective protective measures, including foreign artificial pollination and seedling transplantations.

Green Synthesis of Gold Nanoparticles Using Extract of Pistacia chinensis and Their In Vitro and In Vivo Biological Activities

“…Pistacia chinensis Bunge, also known as Chinese pistache, is a well-known member of the family Anacardiaceae [41]. It is distributed in many places such as Pakistan, India, China, the Philippines, North America, and Taiwan [42]. It is a deciduous tree having characteristics of a rounded crown [43].…”

Variations in genetic diversity in cultivated Pistacia chinensis

“…Genetic diversity in P. chinensis has previously been studied using several markers, including SSR (Wu et al, 2010;Lu et al, 2019;Cheng et al, 2022), random amplified microsatellite polymorphism (RAMP), random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) (Katsiotis et al, 2003). Parfitt and Badenes and Xie et al (Parfitt and Badenes, 1997;Xie et al, 2014) used plastid and nuclear genome sequences in phylogenetic and biogeographic analyses of Pistacia, however, to date, few studies, if any, have examined extensive genomic SNP data (including the plastid and nuclear genomes) for population analyses.…”

“…Genetic diversity in P. chinensis has previously been studied using several markers, including SSR ( Wu et al., 2010 ; Lu et al., 2019 ; Cheng et al., 2022 ), random amplified microsatellite polymorphism (RAMP), random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) ( Katsiotis et al., 2003 ). Parfitt and Badenes and Xie et al.…”

Pollination Contribution Differs among Insects Visiting Cardiocrinum cordatum Flowers

“…The maintenance of genetic diversity is important for the conservation of wild plant species, and successful cross-pollination plays a major role in gene flow to maintain the genetic diversity of plant populations [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9], especially when a population is fragmented [5][6][7][8][9][10]. Additionally, pollination is a central issue in studies on plant-animal interactions [11][12][13][14][15], plant reproductive biology [15][16][17][18][19][20], and on improvement of agricultural production [15,[20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28].…”

“…The situation is similar in the urban area of Obihiro city in Hokkaido, in which forests are fragmented into small pieces [33,34]. As the pollination process is critical for the maintenance of genetic diversity of fragmented populations [5,[7][8][9][10], quantification of pollinator contribution is of utmost importance for future conservation of this species. Ohara et al [32] suggested that the large nectar quantity and mild floral fragrance of C. cordatum attract pollinators; however, they did not investigate Forests 2021, 12, 452 2 of 11 the contribution of flower visitors to pollination.…”