Allium ursinum L. in Germany – surprisingly low genetic variability

Abstract

Allium ursinum s.l. is a widely spread species of the herb layer in beech forests throughout Europe. Little is known about its phylogenetic origin and its biogeographic history. Molecular genetic analyses of eleven populations from Germany were used to clarify the relationship between populations of A. ursinum s.l. and its relationship to several other species of the genus Allium. The study focused mainly on the Teutoburg Forest in Lower Saxony and the Franconian mountain area in Bavaria. Sequences of the nuclear internal transcribed spacer ITS, and the external transcribed spacer ETS, as well as the plastidic trn L‐rpl 32 and the trn L‐trn F spacer regions were compared. No variation was detected within the species. Even sequences of populations from Belfast, Ireland did not differ from populations of Germany. The closest relative to Allium ursinum s.l. turned out to be Allium moly or Allium scorzonerifolium from the section Molium. Random amplified polymorphic DNA fingerprinting was performed and revealed 29% polymorphic bands. Genetic distances of the populations within the Teutoburg Forest coincided with geographical distances. Three populations (Osnabrück Westerberg, Osnabrück Honeburg and Leer, East Frisia) out of eleven analysed populations were identified as garden escapes. (© 2012 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

Intraspecific Molecular Variation of Allium ursinum (Amaryllidaceae) Across the Border of Two Subspecies Distribution Ranges

“…ucrainicum. It should also be mentioned that the genetic variability of Allium ursinum found in this study is higher than recorded in the populations from Germany detected by RAPD fingerprinting (Herden et al, 2012). Low genetic variability could be explained by a rapid spread of the species after glaciation in central Germany (Hewitt, 1999;Herden et al, 2012), in contrast to the more complex postglacial migration history of A. ursinum in Poland.…”

Genetic diversity of Helosciadium repens (Jacq.) W.D.J. Koch (Apiaceae) in Germany, a Crop Wild Relative of celery

“…During the recolonization of the Northern parts after the last glacial maximum, diversity was lost due to bottleneck effects (Hewitt, 1996(Hewitt, , 1999. Similar events are also known for Calluna vulgaris (Mahy, Vekemans, Jacquemart, & Sloover, 1997), various Bryophytes (Cronberg, 2000), Abies alba (Konnert & Bergmann, 1995), Allium ursinum (Herden, Neuffer, & Friesen, 2012) and many other European species. To prove this assumption, a broader study on a European scale would be necessary.…”

Allium canariense (Amaryllidaceae), a species endemic to the Canary Islands

“…The ETS region was amplified using the primers 18S-IGS (Baldwin & Markos 1998) and ETS-all-f (Nguyen et al 2008). The PCR condition was identical to that described in Herden et al (2012). Primers for the chloroplast regions were as follows: for the rpL32-trnL region described in Shaw et al (2007), for rps16 intron described in Oxelman et al (1997), for trnL-trnF described in Taberlet et al (1991).…”