Genetic polymorphism of dwarf Scots pines in the south of Central Siberia

Abstract

Polymorphism of 11 enzyme systems has been studied in dwarf Scots pine trees occurring on sand dunes and crags in two populations of southern Central Siberia. High genotypic variability of dwarfs and their similarity to normal trees in basic indices of genetic diversity have been revealed. Both populations, including normal and dwarf trees, are in the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. The sample of dwarf trees has proved to differ from the “norm” in showing an age-related trend toward decreased heterozygosity. The observed linkage disequilibrium at some pairs of loci can be explained by unequal contributions of trees to population reproduction or by a recent bottleneck event. The populations studied are similar to other Scots pine populations from the Asian part of the species range. Increased frequencies of some rare alleles in the populations from Tuva provide evidence for the probable presence of a glacial refugium for pine in this region.