Use of Nuclear Microsatellite Loci for Evaluating Genetic Diversity of Selected Populations of Picea abies (L.) Karsten in the Czech Republic

Abstract

DNA polymorphism at nine nuclear microsatellites of nine selected naturally-regenerated Norway spruce populations growing mainly within gene conservation units in different parts of the Czech Republic was studied. To verify the genetic quality of the selected gene conservation unit, we analyzed nine Norway spruce subpopulations from gene conservation unit GZ 102-Orlické hory. Genetic parameters can be used in state administrative decision making on including stands into gene conservation units. The level of genetic diversity within 17 investigated Czech Norway spruce units was relatively high. Mean values for the number of different alleles ranged from 12.2 (population SM 08) to 16.2 (subpopulation SM T4). The values of observed heterozygosity (H o) ranged from 0.65 to 0.80 and expected heterozygosity (H e) from 0.74 to 0.81. Pairwise population F ST values ranging from 0.006 to 0.027 indicated low genetic differentiation between units, and values of Nei's genetic distance among Norway spruce units ranged from 0.046 to 0.168, thus structuring of the investigated Norway spruce units was confirmed. Closer genetic similarity was seen in subpopulations from the gene conservation unit in Orlické hory than in the studied populations from other genetic conservation units. Additionally, the populations SM 01 and SM 05, both of Hurst ecotypes, were the closest to one another and the populations of mountain and alpine ecotypes were assembled into another group.

Assessment of Genetic Diversity and Population Genetic Structure of Norway Spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karsten) at Its Southern Lineage in Europe. Implications for Conservation of Forest Genetic Resources

“…We found that the number of alleles ranged between 2 (locus Pa51) and 29 (locus WS00111.K13). Interestingly, the number of alleles for the latter EST-SSR locus was high, but similar results have been reported by other authors for the same locus; e.g., Máchová et al [47] found 34 alleles per population on the same locus, whereas Unger et al [48] and Cvjetković et al [49] reported 28 and 20 alleles per population on this locus, respectively.…”

“…Likewise, a very low overall genetic differentiation among studied Norway spruce populations in Serbia was detected (0.007). The observed value of F st was lower than it was previously reported for this species using genomic SSR (F st = 0.050, [44]; F st = 0.088, [53]; F st = 0.029, [43]), EST-SSRs (F st = 0.026, [49]), and a combination of genomic and EST-SSR markers (F st = 0.011, [47]). On the other hand, genetic differentiation among Serbian populations was higher than Unger et al [48] reported for three Tyrol populations (F st = 0.002) using EST-SSR markers and Westergren et al [46] for Slovenian core and marginal populations (F st = 0.002), using genomic SSRs.…”

“…Indeed, a slightly higher mean H e per population, but not with a statistically significant difference, was detected by our study in comparison to populations from Bosnia and Herzegovina, considering seven mutual loci (WS00716.F13, WS0092.M15, WS0022.B15, WS0073.H08, WS00111.K13, WS0023.B03, Pa44) (0.71 vs. 0.68) [49]. Furthermore, mean H e across five common loci (WS00716.F13, WS0022.B15, WS0073.H08, WS00111.K13, WS0023.B03) was slightly higher (0.89) in Serbian populations in comparison to those observed in Tyrol (0.87) and the Czech republic (0.86) [47,48]. Numerous studies using SSRs evidenced that geographically widespread tree species showed significantly higher intra-population genetic diversity than variation among populations (e.g., [51,52]).…”

“…), which spanned across a wide area in the past but survived the last glacial maximum in the refugia located at Tara. Moreover, EST-SSRs are potentially subjected to the effects of natural selection constrains, therefore being directly associated with coding genes [16,47]. For example, EST-SSR loci WS0073.H08 and WS00716.F13, which were used in this study, were described to match remorin 1 protein and β-glucosidase protein, respectively [16].…”

Genetic Structure of Norway Spruce Ecotypes Studied by SSR Markers

“…In our study, the estimated parameters of mean heterozygosity (Ho = 0.601, He = 0.705) are comparable to previously published studies [34,[66][67][68][69][70]; similarly, in our case, these are accompanied by a low level of genetic differentiation among populations. Similar values were observed despite the variety of experimental and sampling design, targeting various features and traits of interest.…”