Xuejiang Zhang 
,
Helena Korpelainen,
Chunyang Li
Microsatellite variation of Quercus aquifolioides populations at varying altitudes in the Wolong Natural Reserve of China
Zhang X., Korpelainen H., Li C. (2006). Microsatellite variation of Quercus aquifolioides populations at varying altitudes in the Wolong Natural Reserve of China. Silva Fennica vol. 40 no. 3 article id 326. https://doi.org/10.14214/sf.326
Abstract
Genetic variation and differentiation were investigated among five natural populations of Quercus aquifolioides occurring along an altitudinal gradient that varied from 2000 to 3600 m above sea level in the Wolong Natural Reserve of China, by analyzing variation at six microsatellite loci. The results showed that the populations were characterized by relatively high intra-population variation with the average number of alleles equaling 11.33 per locus and the average expected heterozygosity (HE) being 0.779. The amount of genetic variation varied only little among populations, which suggests that the influence of altitude factors on microsatellite variation is limited. However, there is a significantly positive correlation between altitude and the number of low-frequency alleles (R2 = 0.97, P < 0.01), which indicates that Q. aquifolioides from high altitudes has more unique variation, possibly enabling adaptation to severe conditions. F statistics showed the presence of a slight deficiency of heterozygosity (FIS = 0.136) and a low level of differentiation among populations (FST = 0.066). The result of the cluster analysis demonstrated that the grouping of populations does not correspond to the altitude of the populations. Based on the available data, it is likely that the selective forces related to altitude are not strong enough to significantly differentiate the populations of Q. aquifolioides in terms of microsatellite variation.
Keywords
genetic differentiation;
genetic variation;
altitudinal gradients;
microsatellites;
Quercus aquifolioides
-
Zhang,
Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 416, Chengdu 610041, P. R. China; Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100039, P. R. China
E-mail
xz@nn.cn
- Korpelainen, Department of Applied Biology, P.O. Box 27, FI-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland E-mail hk@nn.fi
- Li, Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 416, Chengdu 610041, P. R. China E-mail licy@cib.ac.cn
Received 10 January 2006 Accepted 21 April 2006 Published 31 December 2006
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