Genetic resources of relict populations of Pinus sylvestris (L.) in Western Carpathians assessed by chloroplast microsatellites

Abstract

The relict character of the Scots pine populations from the Tatra Mts. (Western Carpathians) was formed on scarcely accessible, ecologically extreme habitats, in areas which were not under human activity. An exhaustive genetic analysis of the Scots pine populations from the refugial locations in the Tatra Mts. (Poland) had not yet been. In this study, we characterize the genetic variation and differentiation of the relict Scots pine populations from the Tatra Mts., to provide information on their genetic resources and the conservation implications. Eight paternally inherited chloroplast microsatellite loci were used to investigate the genetic structure of 4 relict populations, which were compared with the natural populations from the Baltic region (5 populations from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia) and to a northern range from Russia (5 populations from the Kola Peninsula and Arkhangelsk Oblast). The four relict pine populations were characterized by a lower level of genetic variation when compared to the Baltic and northern populations, which was expressed in lower values of particular genetic parameters: numbers of alleles and haplotypes, haplotype genetic diversity, haplotype differentiation, and mean genetic distance between individuals in the population. Our results revealed a very high and significant genetic differentiation between all the analyzed populations, as well as between the three analyzed regions (PhiPT = 8%). Furthermore, the relict populations within a close geographic location showed higher differentiation (PhiPT = 5%) compared to the northern Russian and Baltic populations that were separated by tens and hundreds of kilometers. The relict populations of P. sylvestris from the Tatra Mts. deserve conservation efforts due to the fact that they are an important component if the species-poor Tatra forests.

Comparative Analysis of Complete Chloroplast Genomes of Eight Ficus Species and Insights Into Phylogenetic Relationships of Ficus

“…The number and distribution of four repeats in the eight Ficus cp genomes, and the distribution of repeast were similar in the cp genomes of Ficus, which was strongly related to the high conserved in Ficus species. The cpSSR markers have been frequently used for intraspeci c identi cation and genetic evolutionary analysis because of their high mutation rate [40][41][42]. The results of this study indicated that the mono-nucleotide repeats were the richer repeat type in eight Ficus species, with the A/T as the enriched repeat motif, similar to other higher plant studies [13,43], indicating that the higher plants were dominated by low-level repeat motif [44].…”

Complete Chloroplast Genome Sequence and Phylogenetic Inference of the Canary Islands Dragon Tree (Dracaena draco L.)

“…Simple sequence repeats (SSRs or microsatellites) are very often used in population, ecological and conservation genetics as effective molecular markers mainly due to the high level of genetic polymorphism detected by them and wide distribution throughout the whole chloroplast genome [60][61][62][63]. Initially, isolation and characterization of microsatellite markers and the development of primers amplifying these regions was quite a laborious and expensive task.…”

New Insight into Taxonomy of European Mountain Pines, Pinus mugo Complex, Based on Complete Chloroplast Genomes Sequencing

“…Simple sequence repeats (SSRs or microsatellites) are very often used in population, ecological and conservation genetics as effective molecular markers. Their most important advantages are the high level of genetic polymorphism detected by them and wide distribution throughout the genome of chloroplasts, as well as trouble-free amplification, fast electrophoretic separation or objective and simple statistical analysis [ 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 ].…”