High-Level Genetic Diversity and Complex Population Structure of Siberian Apricot (Prunus sibirica L.) in China as Revealed by Nuclear SSR Markers

Abstract

Siberian apricot (Prunus sibirica L.), an ecologically and economically important tree species with a high degree of tolerance to a variety of extreme environmental conditions, is widely distributed across the mountains of northeastern and northern China, eastern and southeastern regions of Mongolia, Eastern Siberia, and the Maritime Territory of Russia. However, few studies have examined the genetic diversity and population structure of this species. Using 31 nuclear microsatellites, we investigated the level of genetic diversity and population structure of Siberian apricot sampled from 22 populations across China. The number of alleles per locus ranged from 5 to 33, with an average of 19.323 alleles. The observed heterozygosity and expected heterozygosity ranged from 0.037 to 0.874 and 0.040 to 0.924 with average values of 0.639 and 0.774, respectively. A STRUCTURE-based analysis clustered all of the populations into four genetic clusters. Significant genetic differentiation was observed between all population pairs. A hierarchical analysis of molecular variance attributed about 94% of the variation to within populations. No significant difference was detected between the wild and semi-wild groups, indicating that recent cultivation practices have had little impact on the genetic diversity of Siberian apricot. The Mantel test showed that the genetic distance among the populations was not significantly correlated with geographic distance (r = 0.4651, p = 0.9940). Our study represents the most comprehensive investigation of the genetic diversity and population structure of Siberian apricot in China to date, and it provides valuable information for the collection of genetic resources for the breeding of Siberian apricot and related species.

Genetic characterization of red-colored heartwood genotypes of Chinese fir using simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers

“…Fewer heterozygotes were observed at the population level, except in G population. Similar findings have been reported in many other tree species (Veron et al, 2005;Hadziabdic et al, 2012;Wang et al, 2014). A process of inbreeding in these trees, such as partial selfing (Veron et al, 2005), effect of biparental breeding because of limited pollen dispersal among relatives (Hadziabdic et al, 2012), and the result of half-sibling mating occurring over a small geographical area, may have caused the heterozygote deficiency .…”

New insights into the history of domesticated and wild apricots and its contribution to Plum pox virus resistance

“…; Wang et al . ). Further research on the Chinese cultivated and wild apricot(s), together with representatives of closely related species ( P. siberica, P. mandshurica, P. mume and P. ansu ), is required to infer the precise diversity and population structure of apricot in China.…”

Evaluation of Turkish apricot germplasm using SSR markers: Genetic diversity assessment and search for Plum pox virus resistance alleles

“…Siberian apricots in China were divided into two subpopulations (Li et al, 2014) and into four subpopulations in another study (Wang et al, 2014), and molecular findings have shown that no significant difference is detected between the wild and semiwild groups, indicating that recent cultivation practices have had little impact on the genetic diversity of Siberian apricots (Wang et al, 2014). The common apricots of Mediterranean countries were studied by Bourguiba et al (2012), and 207 accessions were subdivided into three main gene pools when K = 3: Irano-Caucasian, North Mediterranean Basin and South Mediterranean Basin.…”