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Leading-edge populations do not show low genetic diversity or high differentiation in a wind-pollinated tree

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Population Ecology

Abstract

Climate changes can shift species’ ranges. Knowledge on genetic variation of the leading-edge populations provides critical information to understand responses and adaptation of plants to projected climate warming. To date, the research into genetic variation of leading-edge populations has been limited, particularly in the role of wind-mediated pollen flow in maintaining high genetic variation. Castanopsis sclerophylla (Fagaceae) is a wind-pollinated and gravity-dispersed tree. In the present study, we used seven polymorphic microsatellites to genotype 482 samples from five leading-edge and 12 non-edge populations. Significant effects of recent population bottleneck events were found in three of the five leading-edge populations, indicating that the leading-edge populations might have been recolonized after the Last Glacial Maximum. Genetic diversity was higher, though not significantly, in leading-edge than in non-edge populations. Relationship between genetic diversity and latitude indicated an increasing trend of genetic diversity towards leading-edge populations. No significant difference in genetic differentiation was found between leading-edge and non-edge populations. The inconsistence with the general predictions by leading-edge colonization model could be explained by high gene flow via pollen grains. Pollen-mediated gene flow could maintain high genetic diversity within and low differentiation among leading-edge populations. In response to climate warming, high genetic variation may provide leading-edge populations raw materials for evolutionary adaptation to future environmental conditions.

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Acknowledgments

We appreciate Walter Durka to give constructive suggestions and supply some statistical helps. We thank Naoki Tani and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments and suggestes and Shuo Yu, Mei-Hua Liu, Dawei Gao, Bang-Quan Gao and Xiao-Yan Wang for helps in sample collection. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (30970430, 30470287) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (78220028).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Sciences, Tiantong National Observation Station for Forest Ecosystems, East China Normal University, Shanghai, 200062, China

    Miao-Miao Shi & Xiao-Yong Chen

  2. Department of Community Ecology, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, UFZ, Theodor-Lieser-Str. 4, 06120, Halle, Germany

    Miao-Miao Shi

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  1. Miao-Miao Shi
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Correspondence to Xiao-Yong Chen.

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Shi, MM., Chen, XY. Leading-edge populations do not show low genetic diversity or high differentiation in a wind-pollinated tree. Popul Ecol 54, 591–600 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10144-012-0332-7

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