Intraspecific differentiation of Lindera obtusiloba as revealed by comparative plastomic and evolutionary analyses

Abstract

Lindera obtusiloba Blume is the northernmost tree species in the family Lauraceae, and it is a key species in understanding the evolutionary history of this family. The species of L. obtusiloba in East Asia has diverged into the Northern and Southern populations, which are geographically separated by an arid belt. Though the morphological differences between populations have been observed and well documented, intraspecific variations at the plastomic level have not been systematically investigated to date. Here, ten chloroplast genomes of L. obtusiloba individuals were sequenced and analyzed along with three publicly available plastomes. Comparative plastomic analysis suggests that both the Northern and the Southern populations share similar overall structure, gene order, and GC content in their plastomes although the size of the plasome and the level of intraspecific variability do vary between the two populations. The Northern have relatively larger plastomes while the Southern population possesses higher intraspecific variability, which could be attributed to the complexity of the geological environments in the South. Phylogenomic analyses also support the split of the Northern and Southern clades among L. obtusiloba individuals. However, there is no obvious species boundary between var. obtusiloba and var. heterophylla in the Southern population, indicating that gene flow could still occur between these two varieties, and this could be used as a good example of reticulate evolution. It is also found that a few photosynthesis‐related genes are under positive selection, which is mainly related to the geological and environmental differences between the Northern and the Southern regions. Our results provide a reference for phylogenetic analysis within species and suggest that phylogenomic analyses with a sufficient number of nuclear and chloroplast genomic target loci from widely distributed individuals could provide a deeper understanding of the population evolution of the widespread species.