Genetic Variation of European Beech Populations and Their Progeny from Northeast Germany to Southwest Switzerland

Abstract

Climate change can adversely affect the growth of European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) across its entire distribution range. Therefore, knowledge of the adaptive potential of this species to changing climatic conditions is of foremost importance. Genetic diversity is the basis for adaptation to environmental stress, and the regeneration phase of forests is a key stage affecting genetic diversity. Nevertheless, little is known about the effect of climate change on the genetic diversity of adult trees compared to their progeny. Here, we present genetic diversity data for 24 beech populations ranging from northeast Germany to southwest Switzerland. Potentially adaptive genetic variation was studied using single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers in candidate genes that are possibly involved in adaptive trait variation. In addition, more than 2000 adult trees and 3000 of their seedlings were genotyped with simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers to determine selectively neutral genetic diversity and differentiation among populations. All populations showed high SSR and SNP variation, and no differences in genetic diversity were found between adult trees and their offspring. The genetic differentiation between adults and seedlings within the same stands was also insignificant or very low. Therefore, we can conclude tentatively that the transfer of genetic variation among tree generations, currently, is not much affected by climate change, at least in the studied beech populations.

Summer drought exposure, stand structure, and soil properties jointly control the growth of European beech along a steep precipitation gradient in northern Germany

“…That we did not observe a lower drought sensitivity at the drier sites might be explained by the fact that our investigation, in contrast to the above-cited studies, covered a much smaller region, and genetic differences between populations likely were less pronounced in relation to the whole distribution range of beech (Müller et al, 2018).…”

“…Accordingly, earlier studies on the genetic differentiation of beech populations in the study region have shown that genetic diversity is high at the within-population level but low between populations (Müller et al, 2018). A study in five northern German beech populations along a precipitation gradient based on highly polymorphic microsatellite markers found only small genetic distances after Nei (1972) between populations (0.017-0.053) for any pair of the five populations (Müller & Finkeldey, 2016).…”

Genetic Diversity and Population Genetic Structure of Cinnamomum camphora in South China Revealed by EST-SSR Markers

“…Molecular markers are often used to investigate the genetic diversity and population genetic structure in tree species, especially for those species with less genetic information [21][22][23][24][25]. SSR markers are the ideal choices for wild tree populations because of their high variability and codominance [26,27].…”

A novel synthesis of two decades of microsatellite studies on European beech reveals decreasing genetic diversity from glacial refugia

“…Data from published studies were extracted directly from PDFs as described below. Additionally, raw datasets of genotyped trees were retrieved from the Dryad database for 11 publications (Lander et al 2011;Jump et al 2012;Lefèvre et al 2012;Stefano et al 2012;Piotti et al 2012;De Lafontaine et al 2013;Gauzere et al 2013;Rajendra et al 2014;Sjölund and Jump 2015;Müller et al 2018;Oddou-Muratorio et al 2018). An additional four datasets were obtained from the authors (Magri 2008;Sjölund et al 2015;Cvrčková et al 2017;Cuervo-Alarcon et al 2018).…”

“…If populations were not clearly defined or were grouped in large zones, the average number of populations per country or zone was considered, as indicated in the publication. For studies which used more than one marker system (Bilela et al 2012;Cuervo-Alarcon et al 2018;Müller et al 2018;Paffetti et al 2012), genetic diversity indices were extracted for both molecular marker types, and the correlation between genetic diversity indices was estimated (Spearman's rank test). Distributions of compiled reported values of genetic diversity obtained with diverse molecular markers were compared using a Kruskal-Wallis test, and after verifying that these differed by marker (Kruskal-Wallis's test = 986.45, p < 2.2e-16), analyses were conducted separately for each marker system.…”