Genetic Variability and Differentiation Among Populations of the Azorean Endemic Gymnosperm Juniperus brevifolia: Baseline Information for a Conservation and Restoration Perspective

Abstract

The Azorean endemic gymnosperm Juniperus brevifolia (Seub.) Antoine is a top priority species for conservation in Macaronesia, based on its ecological significance in natural plant communities. To evaluate genetic variability and differentiation among J. brevifolia populations from the Azorean archipelago, we studied 15 ISSR and 15 RAPD markers in 178 individuals from 18 populations. The average number of polymorphic bands per population was 65 for both ISSR and RAPD. The majority of genetic variability was found within populations and among populations within islands, and this partitioning of variability was confirmed by AMOVA. The large majority of population pairwise F ST values were above 0.3 and below 0.6. The degree of population genetic differentiation in J. brevifolia was relatively high compared with other species, including Juniperus spp. The genetic

Genetic diversity of Lithuanian populations of Juniperus communis L. in relation to abiotic and biotic factors

“…If selection of populations bypasses some habitats, this parameter of DNA could be underestimated or overestimated. In our study, polymorphism at ISSR loci differed 1.6 times depending on habitat of population, being the lowest for D and G habitats, intermediate -for Meloni et al, 2006) or lower when compared to J. brevifolia studies (67%, Silva et al, 2011;69.7%, Bettencourt et al, 2015). Moderate percentage of polymorphic DNA of Lithuania populations of J. communis might be due to several reasons.…”

“…Influence of external factors on genetic diversity of the junipers including geographical proximity (Oostermeijer & Knegt, 2004;Sobierajska et al, 2016), long-term evolution (Hantemirova et al, 2012;Filipowicz et al, 2006;Meloni et al, 2006;Boratyński et al, 2014) has been shown in previous studies. However, there are only few studies where habitat-related peculiarities are mentioned: association between ISSR-related data and habitat type of populations have been described for J. brevifolia populations from the Azorean archipelago (Silva et al, 2011) and J. communis from Wales and England (Van der Merwe et al, 2000).…”

“…Complementary to RAPDs, other dominant markers -Inter Simple Sequence Repeats (ISSRs), are increasingly being used since they have higher specificity (Silva et al, 2011) and are less prone to laboratory conditions (Meloni et al, 2006). Several juniper species growing in Europe from the sect.…”

“…Caryocedrus, were compared by ISSRs (Adams et al, 2003). A few studies were devoted for evaluation of molecular diversity within juniper species: ISSR markers were applied for J. brevifolia (Lima et al, 2010;Silva et al, 2011;Bettencourt et al, 2015) and J. phoenicea populations (Meloni et al, 2006). Prior to our study, the only available information about J. communis obtained by RAPD markers came from Scotland (Adams, 2011) and Iran (Kasaian et al, 2011), while ISSR data for this species are still missing.…”

A Brief History of Biochemical Genetics’ 50 Years and a Reflection About Past and Present Research Directions

“…In this context, being a more numerical ecology-oriented researcher, I began to undertake population genetic studies, using dominant markers such as Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA and Inter Simple Sequence Repeats (e.g., Silva et al 2011) and, a little time afterwards, initiated work with microsatellites, mostly dedicated to conservation genetics (e.g., Silva et al 2015). Presently, we are undertaking research in the area of metagenomics.…”