No abstract

To our knowledge, this report contains the first evidence for triploidy in Q. petraea and confirmation of this phenomenon in Q. robur. Regardless of the positive or negative aspects of the presence of triploid oaks in forest stands, it is of value to be able to screen for them. This study demonstrates that nuclear microsatellites and estimation of DNA content by flow cytometry can readily be used for this purpose.

Abstract• Introduction, Material and Methods The genetic structure and diversity of ten natural populations of Juniperus phoenicea L. from the western part of the species range have been studied using random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers.• Results and discussion Among 10 analyzed primers only 3 reproduced consistently across successful PCR reactions and gave 45 loci. The percentage of polymorphic loci (P) and Nei's heterozygosity (H e ) have average values of 64.9% and 0.177. The average expected heterozygosity of particular populations positively correlate with latitude and negatively with altitude (C=0.556, P=0.025; C=−0.494, P=0.047, respectively). The proportion of genetic variation contributed by the differences between populations was low (G ST = 0.056). The gene flow (N m ) has an average value of 4.2, and was higher in subsp. turbinata (7.3) than in subsp. phoenicea (4.1). Significant proportion of the variation (Φ ST =0.106) was attributable to differences among populations, as revealed in analysis of molecular variance analysis of pair-wise RAPD distances. No evidence for isolation by distance was detected in Mantel test on genetic (Φ ST ) and geographic distances. European populations differed at a higher level from the African, subsp. phoenicea from turbinata (3.97% and 3.14% of total variance, respectively). The significant level of differences between European and African populations can result from (1) the earlier divergence and considerably low level of gene flow between them, or (2) a different mutation rate within population of different continent.• Conclusion The results suggest rather local forest economy with J. phoenicea, without seed exchange on large distance.

The high mountain plants of Central and Southern Europe survived the glacial periods in the same mountain ridges, but at lower altitudes and possibly covering larger areas than during interglacials. This implies the high level of species differentiation between isolated mountain ridges. complex, which includes s.s. (Alps, Sudetes, Carpathians, Dynaric Alps and Rhodopes), (Pyrenees and Alps) and (Sudetes and neighbouring mountain ridges) is a good group to examine such a scenario. We screened 44 populations across the geographic range of the complex, using ten cpSSR markers to study (1) taxonomic relations among s.s., and and (2) genetic and phylogeographic structure in s.s. and. Allelic combinations of 87 size variants produced a total of 757 haplotypes. Haplotypic diversity was high and similar in every species (0.997, 0.986 and 0.991, respectively). The highest divergence between haplotypes was observed in (2 =10.29). The AMOVA revealed that most of the overall genetic variation is explained by the within population component (=0.121, =0.206) and by the geography (=0.056, =0.083). The differentiation between s.s., and is explained by about 5% (<0.001) of the total variation. Vicariant gene pools for the complex were identified in the Pyrenees, the Alps with the Tatra Mts., the Sudetes, and the East and South Carpathians along with

Rates of hybridization between wild and domesticated animals appear to be increasing worldwide. Recent results suggest that genetic introgression from domestic swine into European wild boar is much more common in local populations than expected, based on pan-European studies. Thus, we screened the genetic purity of 265 free-living wild boars from two hunting areas in Poland by genotyping the melanocortin receptor 1 gene (MC1R) for polymorphism. Unexpectedly, high numbers of individuals with domestic genes (24%) were identified. This suggests that mixed ancestry may be common in Polish wild boar. Among admixed individuals, backcrosses with domestic pig and/or introgressed wild boars were detected (2%). Multiple commercial domestic pig breeds are possibly involved in the introgression observed in the study populations. In addition, the absence of significant differences in the frequency of wildtype allele among two hunting areas suggests high dispersal of individuals and gene flow among populations. We conclude that further study is needed to better understand the mechanisms and sources of introgression in wild boars in Poland.

In Europe, most of the alpine timberline ecotone has been altered by human activities and climate change. Hence, mountain forests are of the highest conservation interest. Here, we screened 25 populations of Swiss stone pine (Pinus cembra L.) from the Carpathians and the Alps, using a set of ten microsatellite primers to assess the relative conservation value of populations sampled in Polish and Slovak Tatra National Parks, where potential extinction risk is the highest within the Carpathian range. Although endangered, with small and fragmented populations, P. cembra in the Tatra Mts. shows high levels of allelic richness (AR = 5.0) and observed heterozygosity (H o = 0.554). Our results suggest that anthropogenic habitat fragmentation has had little impact on DNA variation of Swiss stone pine in the Tatra Mts. However, the effects of changing conditions on the genetic structure may occur with a substantial time delay due to the long life span of P. cembra. Moreover, inbreeding depression may occur in the next generations, since we found inbreeding (F IS = 0.063) and elevated coancestry coefficient (h = 0.062) in all populations. Also a shallow pattern of genetic differentiation between populations was found, indicating recent fragmentation of a common gene pool that formerly occupied a larger range. Therefore, the Tatra Mts. can be considered as a single conservation unit. Based on our results, we suggest possible conservation activities for Swiss stone pine both in Poland and Slovakia.

In plants, the magnitude of seed and pollen dispersal plays a pivotal role in shaping genetic structure of populations. Restricted dispersal of genes can stimulate the increase of inbreeding as well as spatial clustering of relatives. These phenomena are explained by the theory of isolation-by-distance. Because of its biology, European beech ( Fagus sylvatica L.) seems to be susceptible to isolation-by-distance. However, to date fine-scale effects, including biparental inbreeding and a spatial genetic structure are not fully recognized for this species. In this study, two populations of European beech were investigated, both representing a dense beech forest, typical for Central Europe. Using nine microsatellite markers and a recently developed method, we found a significant level of biparental inbreeding in both populations. Spatial autocorrelation analysis revealed that both populations exhibit clustering of related individuals up to 40 m. The observed spatial genetic structure fit well to the log-linear regression model. Thus, results confirmed our hypothesis of the presence of the isolation-by-distance effect. Furthermore, based on these results we inferred a dispersal mode, both for seeds and pollen; in particular, seed dispersal was 10–100 times more restricted than pollen flow, although a significant portion of short-distance pollinations responsible for biparental inbreeding cannot be excluded.

Assessing the distribution of chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) haplotype variation is useful for studying the phylogeography of angiosperms. In the last two decades the cpDNA phylogeography of white oaks in Europe has been extensively studied, mostly based on the PCR-RFLP technique. However, PCR-RFLPs have low mutation rates and are primarily useful for reconstructing patterns at large geographical scales and lack resolution at fine spatial scales. Here we evaluate the usefulness of chloroplast microsatellites (cpSSR) as an alternative to PCRRFLPs in Polish oak populations which have been underrepresented in previous studies. Eighty-five cpSSR haplotypes were detected using 14 cpSSR loci and a broad collection of 6680 trees sampled throughout Poland. Haplotype diversity was significantly lower in Q. petraea (He = 0.798) than in Q. robur (He = 0.820). Only 17 haplotypes (H01-H17) were found in 13 or more individuals, comprising together 97.9% of the sample. Most frequent cpSSR haplotypes were related to PCR-RFLP haplotypes, establishing the cross-references between the two marker systems. There was significant concordance between the matrices of genetic distances obtained by PCR-RFLP haplotypes and cpSSR haplotypes. Phylogenetic relationships among cpSSR haplotypes supported the existence of the three predominant maternal lineages of oaks in Poland: Iberian (7.8%), Apennine (20.6%) and Balkan (65.5%). The results are discussed with regards to the usefulness of cpSSR markers for phylogeographic studies.