Abstract
Phyllanthus emblica L. is a well-known medicinal and edible plant species. Various medicinal compounds in the fruit make it an important medicinal and promising economic material. The plant is widely distributed in Southwestern and Southern China. However, due to massive deforestation and land reclamation as well as deterioration of its natural habitat in recent years, the wild resources of this species have been sharply reduced, and it is rare to see large-scale wild P. emblica forests so far. In order to effectively protect and rationally utilize this species, we investigated the genetic diversity, genetic structure, and population dynamics of 260 individuals from 10 populations of P. emblica sampled from the dry climate area in Yunnan and wet climate area in Guangxi using 20 polymorphic EST-SSR markers. We found high genetic diversity at the species level (He = 0.796) and within populations (He = 0.792), but low genetic differentiation among populations (FST = 0.084). In addition, most genetic variation existed within populations (92.44%) compared with variation among the populations (7.56%). Meanwhile, the NJ tree, STRUCTURE, and hierarchical analysis suggested that the sampled individuals were clustered into two distinct genetic groups. In contrast, the genetic diversity of the dry climate group (He = 0.786, Na = 11.790, I = 1.962) was higher than that of the wet climate group (He = 0.673, Na = 9.060, I = 1.555), which might be attributed to the combined effects of altitude, precipitation, and geographic distance. Interestingly, only altitude and precipitation had significant pure effects on the genetic diversity, and the former was slightly stronger. In addition, DIYABC analysis suggested the effective population size of P. emblica might have contracted in the beginning of the Last Glacial Maximum. These genetic features provided vital information for the conservation and sustainable development of genetic resources of P. emblica, and they also provided new insights and guidelines for ecological restoration and economic development in dry-hot valleys of Yunnan and karst areas in Guangxi.
Highlights
Phyllanthus emblica is a perennial deciduous tree or shrub distributed across tropical and subtropical areas
Based on 20 highly polymorphic EST-SSR markers developed in our previous study (Liu et al, 2018), we evaluated the genetic structure, bottleneck effect, and effective population size of 10 P. emblica populations distributed in typical dry-hot climate areas and typical humid climate areas
We aimed to answer the following questions: (1) What is the level of genetic diversity of P. emblica in both of these typical climate areas? (2) What is the relative importance of geographic and environmental distance as well as precipitation and altitude to the genetic diversity of P. emblica? (3) What is the population dynamics of the species? We hoped to provide a reference for the protection and rational utilization of the wild resources of P. emblica as well as theoretical guidance for the ecological restoration and economic development of mountainous areas in China
Summary
Phyllanthus emblica is a perennial deciduous tree or shrub distributed across tropical and subtropical areas It contains many medicinal compounds such as vitamin C, flavonoids, emblicol, emblicanin A/B, and is used as a daily medication by many ethnic minorities such as Tibetan group in China; its various therapeutic effects such as hepatoprotective, antimicrobials have been confirmed in modern medical research (Variya et al, 2016; Chaphalkar et al, 2017). The area near the Tropic of Cancer in central Guangxi belongs to the south subtropical monsoon climate zone with abundant rainfall. These two climate types are clearly different, P. emblica is distributed in both of these areas and has adapted well to their respective habitats during its long-term evolution. It is highly important to explore the genetic diversity of P. emblica to be able to effectively protect this medicinal, economic and industrial plant species along with rationally developing and utilizing it as an important resource
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