Chloroplast DNA variation of white oaks in northern Balkans and in the Carpathian Basin

Abstract

A total of 1113 oak trees from 222 populations originating from eight countries (Austria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Yugoslavia) were sampled in natural populations or in provenance tests. The sampled trees belong to four different species (Quercus robur, Quercus petraea, Quercus pubescens, Quercus frainetto) and to several putative subspecies. Variation at four chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) fragments was studied using restriction enzymes, resulting in the detection of 12 haplotypes. One haplotype was present in 36% of the trees, and six were found in 6–17% of the trees. The haplotypes are shared extensively between species and subspecies. They belong to three different lineages (A, C and E) and are phylogeographically structured in the region investigated. Haplotypes of lineage E dominate to the east of the Carpathian mountains in Romania, whereas the Carpathian Basin seems to have been colonised along several different colonisation routes, from the Balkan peninsula but also from Italy. The data support the possible role of climatic instability during the late glacial period in shaping this complex geographic structure. The presence of several secondary refugia could be inferred in the region, which have played a major role in the second step of recolonisation, at the onset of the Holocene period.