Abstract
Background Isoetes yunguiensis Q. F. Wang & W. C. Taylor is a lycophyte of an ancient genus, and it is endemic to China. It is a first-class protected plant in China. This living fossil is used in paleoecology and studies on the evolution of Lycophytes in the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. In recent years, human activities have caused the disappearance of several wild populations, and the number of plants in the existing populations is low. Study of the genetic structure, distribution pattern, and historical dynamics of I. yunguiensis in all areas of its distribution is of guiding significance for its rational and effective protection.MethodsExpressed sequence tag-simple sequence repeat (EST-SSR) markers were used to study the genetic diversity and structure of I. yunguiensis, and noncoding chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) sequences were used to study the pedigree, population dynamics history, and glacial shelter of I. yunguiensis. A maximum entropy model was used to predict the past, present, and future distribution patterns of I. yunguiensis.ResultsAnalysis with EST-SSR markers revealed that I. yunguiensis showed high genetic diversity and that genetic variation was significantly higher within populations than between populations. Based on cpDNA data, it was concluded that there was no significant geographic pedigree in the whole area of I. yunguiensis distribution (NST = 0.344 > GST = 0.183, p > 0.05); 21 haplotypes were detected using DnaSP v5. Neutral test and LAMARC simulation showed that I. yunguiensis has experienced rapid expansion in recent years. The maximum entropy model predicted that the potential distribution area of I. yunguiensis in the last glacial maximum period has increased significantly compared with the present distribution area, but the future distribution area did not show substantial changes.
Highlights
Phylogeography, first proposed by Avise et al (1987), traces the evolutionary history of populations and explains the historical distribution of existing biota and historical causes of population differentiation
The present study demonstrated that I. yunguiensis shows high genetic variation, regional genetic variation that is not linked to longitude and latitude or elevation is present, presumably because during the Quaternary glacial period, the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau remained free of ice
Based on the data of chloroplast DNA (cpDNA), no distinct pedigree was detected in the entire area of I. yunguiensis distribution, there has been rapid expansion in recent years
Summary
Phylogeography, first proposed by Avise et al (1987), traces the evolutionary history of populations and explains the historical distribution of existing biota and historical causes of population differentiation. Located in the southwest of China, the plateau has an area of 3× 105 km and an elevation of 1,000–3,000 m, with a higher elevation in the west and lower elevation in the east. The phylogeography of some plants in the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau have been revealed (Li et al, 2012; Wang, Wang & Su, 2014). It is necessary to study the pedigree history and distribution pattern of the endemic plant Isoetes yunguiensis Q. Taylor is a lycophyte of an ancient genus, and it is endemic to China It is a first-class protected plant in China. This living fossil is used in paleoecology and studies on the evolution of Lycophytes in the YunnanGuizhou Plateau. The maximum entropy model predicted that the potential distribution area of I. yunguiensis in the last glacial maximum period has increased significantly compared with the present distribution area, but the future distribution area did not show substantial changes
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