Abstract
Habitat loss due to climate change may cause the extinction of the clonal species with a limited distribution range. Thus, determining the genetic diversity required for adaptability by these species in sensitive ecosystems can help infer the chances of their survival and spread in changing climate. We studied the genetic diversity and population structure of Sambucus wightiana—a clonal endemic plant species of the Himalayan region for understanding its possible survival chances in anticipated climate change. Eight polymorphic microsatellite markers were used to study the allelic/genetic diversity and population structure. In addition, ITS1–ITS4 Sanger sequencing was used for phylogeny and SNP detection. A total number of 73 alleles were scored for 37 genotypes at 17 loci for 8 SSRs markers. The population structural analysis using the SSR marker data led to identifying two sub-populations in our collection of 37 S. wightiana genotypes, with 11 genotypes having mixed ancestry. The ITS sequence data show a specific allele in higher frequency in a particular sub-population, indicating variation in different S. wightiana accessions at the sequence level. The genotypic data of SSR markers and trait data of 11 traits of S. wightiana, when analyzed together, revealed five significant Marker-Trait Associations (MTAs) through Single Marker Analysis (SMA) or regression analysis. Most of the SSR markers were found to be associated with more than one trait, indicating the usefulness of these markers for working out marker-trait associations. Moderate to high genetic diversity observed in the present study may provide insurance against climate change to S. wightiana and help its further spread.
Highlights
Climate warming is affecting the biodiversity and functioning of plant communities across the globe, and in response to this changing climate, species are shifting their geographical distributions and expanding their ranges across elevational and latitudinal gradients[1,2]
If a species can neither adapt to the modified environmental conditions nor migrate fast enough, population extirpation or in the worst-case extinction of entire species is e xpected[10,11]. This extinction can be avoided if the populations undergo evolutionary adaptation[12,13,14]; the evolutionary potential of a population in turn depends on the pre-existing genetic variation within the species, and a high level of standing variation may allow a faster response to environmental changes[15,16]
While counting the number of alleles per marker, it was revealed that a total of 73 alleles were amplified by all the 8 Simple Sequence Repeats (SSRs) markers using 37 S. wightiana genotypes
Summary
Climate warming is affecting the biodiversity and functioning of plant communities across the globe, and in response to this changing climate, species are shifting their geographical distributions and expanding their ranges across elevational and latitudinal gradients[1,2]. A growing body of literature seeks to explain this variation in range shifts using species’ ecological and life-history traits, with expectations that these shifts are determined by the capacity of species to disperse, establish new populations, and proliferate in the new environments[5,6] In this race for survival, clonal plants appear to be at a particular disadvantage due to their limited mobility and limited capacity for adaptation[7]. Eight SSR markers, initially designed for Sambucus nigra, and ITS1–ITS4 region Sanger sequencing, were used to quantify the genetic diversity of Sambucus wightiana (an endemic clonal plant species) to predict its survival chances and potential spread during anticipated climate change. The species is commonly found in forest gaps making way into the canopy, threatening the suitable habitat of many important medicinal plants, decreasing understory plant diversity, and potentially hindering the natural regeneration of conifer saplings
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