Phylogeography of the Korean pine (Pinus koraiensis) in northeast Asia: inferences from organelle gene sequences

Abstract

Range-wide genetic variation of Korean pine (Pinus koraiensis) was assessed using maternally inherited mtDNA and paternally inherited cpDNA for 16 natural populations throughout northeast Asia in order to study its phylogeographical history during the Quaternary. The cpDNA variation indicated that there was no difference between populations on the Asian continent and those in the Japanese archipelago. In contrast, the mtDNA variation indicated that there was significant difference between the populations from the two regions, with each region having a different lineage. The continental populations exhibited no diversity in the mtDNA examined despite the species' current extensive range and large populations. Conversely, while the Korean pine is rare in Japan, the Japanese populations exhibited greater levels of mtDNA diversity (H (T) = 0.502). The higher mtDNA diversity and evidence from numerous Korean pine macrofossil remains dated to the Pleistocene and recovered various sites in Japan suggest that the Japanese archipelago once served as a refugium to a much larger Korean pine population with a more extensive range than is the case today. The presence of the single mtDNA haplotype across the Asian continent suggests that the present widespread populations could have expanded from a single refugium population after the last glacial periods.

New insights into the phylogeny and biogeography of subfamily Orontioideae (Araceae)

“…(Lauraceae) seems to also support this refugia theory . Unlike the study of Aizawa et al (2012), in which the Korean pine (Pinus koraiensis) are represented by a single mtDNA haplotype, compared to much greater level of mtDNA diversity in the Japanese populations, this study found similar levels of cpDNA diversity in the populations of S. nipponicus in Japan and Korea. Given the comparable number of chlorotypes found between populations in Japan and Korea, our preliminary data do not provide support for the refugial theory for S. nipponicus.…”

Evolutionary history of a widespread tree species Acer mono in East Asia

“…(Aizawa et al. ). These tree species were canopy types that determined the forest structure in region II.…”

“…For Pinus koraiensis, a constructive forest species in region II, diversity is low in region II, possibly as the result of a population bottleneck in the glacial period, with populations retreating south of Changbai Mt. (Aizawa et al 2012). These tree species were canopy types that determined the forest structure in region II.…”

Natural hybridization and introgression of Abies firma and Abies homolepis along the altitudinal gradient and genetic insights into the origin of Abies umbellata

“…For the A. umbellata tree, direct sequencing of both strands was performed. Because in Pinaceae cpDNA is paternally inherited, whereas mtDNA is maternally inherited (Neale & Sederoff, ; Wagner, ), we also explored a species‐specific diagnostic mtDNA marker for the three regions of mtDNA ( mat R, nad 7 intron 1 and SSU r RNA) for A. firma and A. homolepis using methods described elsewhere (Aizawa, Kim, & Yoshimaru, ). However, we failed to find any difference between the two species in these mtDNA regions (data not shown, but deposited in GenBank under the accession numbers LC513817–LC513828), as mtDNA sharing was previously observed between A. firma , and A. homolepis (Semerikova, Khrunyk, Lascoux, & Semerikov, ; Tsumura & Suyama, ).…”