Abstract
Juniperus sabina L., a shrub distributed in patches in arid and semi-arid areas of the northern hemisphere, plays an important role in preventing land desertification and maintaining ecosystems. However, few studies have reported genetic diversity and genetic structure of widely distributed populations of J. sabina in northwest China. Here, we evaluated the genetic diversity and genetic structure and predicted the isolation barriers among 11 populations based on 20 simple sequence repeats (SSRs). A total of 134 alleles were generated and the average number of alleles per locus was 6.70. The Shannon diversity index ranged from 0.659 to 0.951, with an average of 0.825. Population structure analysis revealed that the populations were assigned into two genetic groups. The analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) indicated that 88% of genetic variation existed within populations. Moderate population differentiation was occurred with FST value of 0.090. Finally, we concluded that geographic isolation is the main factor affecting the genetic structure of J. sabina populations. The results of this study provide a foundation for the strategies for J. sabina genetic conservation and management.
Highlights
Juniperus sabina L., savin juniper, is a coniferous evergreen shrub of Cupressaceae family with both sexual and asexual reproduction strategies and erect and creeping growth types [1]
Among 333 individuals, a total of 134 alleles, ranging from 2 to 14, were generated by 20 simple sequence repeats (SSRs) loci, with an average of 6.70 alleles per locus, of which JS17 possessed the largest number of alleles (14 alleles), while JS66 generated the smallest number of alleles (2 alleles)
According to the geographical location of the populations, the populations are divided into three groups: Eastern group (NMDM, NMXM, and NMKQ), Central group (NMTK, SXHS, NMNL, and NMTL) and Western group (NMAZ, QH, GS, and NMYQ), the genetic diversity of these groups showed the trend of Central group > Eastern group > Western group
Summary
Juniperus sabina L., savin juniper, is a coniferous evergreen shrub of Cupressaceae family with both sexual and asexual reproduction strategies and erect and creeping growth types [1]. The genetic diversity of a species or group determines the evolutionary potential and the ability to adapt to the environment [5]. Juniperus L. plants have always been a hotspot in genetic diversity [6,7,8,9,10] and phylogenetic [2,7] research. This evergreen species is characterized by its very distinctive, fleshy, ‘berry’-like cones show discontinuous distribution patterns around the Mediterranean and North America in the northern hemisphere. Studies have shown that intermittently distributed juniper plants are likely to evolve from the remaining parts of the Madrean-Tethyan vegetation belt which is distributed at low latitudes in the middle of tertiary and is composed of evergreen plant groups [11]
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