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Fig. 1. Sites within the central Balkans from which populations of V. myrtillus, V. uliginosum and V. vitis-idaea were sampled. The list of populations sampled from each site is given in brackets; * - sites found at Mt Kopaonik; + - sites found at Mt Stara planina.

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Fig. 2. Localities at Mts Kopaonik (a and b) and Stara planina (c and d) at which populations of Vaccinium myrtillus (e), Vaccinium uliginosum (f) and Vaccinium vitis-idaea (g) are found; a) locality Srebrnac, with populations Vm2 and Vu1; b) locality Pajino preslo, with populations Vu2 and Vvi1; c) locality Babin zub, with populations Vm4, Vu4 and Vvi3; d) locality Javor, with populations Vu3 and Vvi4.

Table 1. Sampling localities of populations of three Vaccinium species from the Balkans, sample sizes, and parameters of genetic diversity at the population and at the species level. View in new window/tab.
Table 2. Characteristics of nine decamer primers used for RAPD-PCR analyses in three Vaccinium species from the Balkans.
  PIC values
Primer name Primer sequence (5’–3’) V. myrtillus V. uliginosum V. vitis – idaea
OPA-05 AGGGGTCTTG 0.291 0.283 0.285
OPA-07 GAAACGGGTG 0.246 0.338 0.292
OPA-09 GGGTAACGCC 0.264 0.314 0.319
OPA-10 CTGATCGCAG 0.224 0.282 0.311
OPA-11 CAATCGCCGT 0.277 0.261 0.307
OPA-13 CAGCACCCAC 0.342 0.320 0.323
OPA-15 TTCCGAACCC 0.280 0.298 0.287
OPO 7 CAGCACTGAC 0.302 0.303 0.303
OPO 15 TGGCGTCCTT 0.227 0.303 0.303
Average   0.273 0.300 0.303
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Fig. 3. RAPD banding patterns on 1% agarose gels obtained upon PCR amplification with two decamer primers, OPA 07 (a) and OPA 15 (b and c), in individuals of three Vaccinium species; a – Vaccinium myrtillus, population Vm2 represented by 12 individuals; b – Vaccinium uliginosum, Vu1, 14 individuals; and c – Vaccinium vitis-idaea, Vvi3, 7 individuals; each lane represents a banding pattern in different individual; L – 1 kb DNA ladder; B – blank.

Table 3. Pairwise population FST values (below diagonals), average FST values at the species level, and geographic distances among populations of three Vaccinium species from the Balkans given in km (above diagonals).
Vaccinium myrtillus
  Vm1 Vm2 Vm3 Vm4 Vm5
Vm1   100.65 95.30 243.40 230.73
Vm2 0.392   110.49 143.15 142.25
Vm3 0.349 0.258   226.03 240.03
Vm4 0.465 0.467 0.347   69.50
Vm5 0.549 0.510 0.465 0.502  
Average FST: 0.430
Vaccinium uliginosum
  Vu1 Vu2 Vu3 Vu4 Vu5
Vu1   4.72 172.65 143.32 138.07
Vu2 0.602   173.75 145.39 137.19
Vu3 0.557 0.517   35.77 65.05
Vu4 0.624 0.591 0.496   69.50
Vu5 0.696 0.686 0.495 0.577  
Average FST: 0.584
Vaccinium vitis-idaea
  Vvi1 Vvi2 Vvi3 Vvi4  
Vvi1   137.19 145.39 173.75  
Vvi2 0.552   69.50 65.05  
Vvi3 0.550 0.492   35.77  
Vvi4 0.524 0.498 0.505    
Average FST: 0.520  
FST values significant at 95% level are presented in bold
Table 4. Outcomes of AMOVA analyses in three Vaccinium species at the ramet and at the genet level. View in new window/tab.
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Fig. 4. Dendrogram generated with UPGMA method based on Jacquard’s similarity coefficients among 109 RAPD multilocus phenotypes of three Vaccinium species (a), and outcomes of PCA analysis based on pairwise population Jaccard’s similarity coefficients (b). View larger in new window/tab.

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Fig. 5. Outcomes of Bayesian clustering of populations (a – V. myrtillus; c – V. uliginosum; f – V. vitis-idaea represented by all populations; g – V. vitis-idaea represented by populations Vvi1, Vvi2 and Vvi3), the optimal number of genetic groups in all species as inferred by Evanno’s method (e), and outcomes of PCA analyses based on pairwise population Jaccard’s similarity coefficients at the species level (b – V. myrtillus; d – V. uliginosum; h – V. vitis-idaea). View larger in new window/tab.