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Species-specific alleles at a β-tubulin gene show significant associations with leaf morphological variation within Quercus petraea and Q. robur populations

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Abstract

Quercus petraea and Q. robur are largely sympatric oak species in western and central Europe and known for their intensive genetic exchange which has made the discovery of species-diagnostic markers a huge challenge. Various natural white oak populations (Q. petraea/Q. robur including mixed stands) were investigated for their variability and differentiation patterns at a β-tubulin gene (qutub8) in a European-wide survey. This gene was chosen as a possible candidate among loci subjected to selection and maintaining integrity between species. Two frequent alleles depicted as indels within qutub8’s first intron showed remarkably high interspecific genetic differentiation, with Weir and Cockerham’s theta per allele values ranging from 0.17 to 0.30 for one allele and from 0.04 to 0.19 for the other allele in such mixed oak stands where the multi-allelic qutub8 locus showed significant interspecific F ST . For three mixed stands, qutub8’s F ST significantly departed from the expected neutral differentiation patterns (F ST ranging from 0.063 to 0.080 for this multi-allelic marker) and thus could be influenced by selection. Significant associations were found between genotypic variation and leaf dimensions as well as leaf structure patterns, after having accounted for species and stand effects. Qutub8 represents a locus that exhibits significant species differentiation and is linked to morphological discriminant traits. Consequently, qutub8 likely contributes to species divergence within the European white oak complex.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Drs. Ulrike Csaikl, Jan Jensen, Alexis Ducousso, Bernd Degen, Sandor Bordacs, Giuseppe Vendramin and Piero Bruschi, Pablo Goicoechea and Santiago Espinel, Martin Lascoux, Felix Gugerli and Reiner Finkeldey, Joukje Buiteveld and Joan Cottrell for the provision of oak leaf samples and data of the morphological traits. We also thank Guy Roussel (INRA BIOGECO) for providing the Q. petraea full-sib family samples. We acknowledge two anonymous reviewers’ and the associate editor’s comments that helped improving the article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Département des sciences du bois et de la forêt, Université Laval, 1030 Avenue de la Médecine, G1V 0A6, Québec, QC, Canada

    Ilga Porth

  2. INRA, UMR Biodiversité Gènes et Ecosystèmes, 69 route d’Arcachon, 33612, Cestas Cedex, France

    Pauline Garnier-Géré, Caroline Scotti-Saintagne & Antoine Kremer

  3. Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences, University of British Columbia, 2424 Main Mall, V6T1Z4, Vancouver, BC, Canada

    Jaroslav Klápštĕ & Yousry A. El-Kassaby

  4. Department of Genetics and Physiology of Forest Trees, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences, Kamycka 129, Prague 6—Suchdol, 165 21, Czech Republic

    Jaroslav Klápštĕ

  5. Department of Health and Environment (Bioresources), AIT Austrian Institut of Technology, Konrad-Lorenz-Straße 24, 3430, Tulln, Austria

    Kornel Burg

  6. Present address: INRA-PACA, Unité du département Ecologie des Forêts, Prairies et Milieux Aquatiques, 84914, Avignon Cedex 9, France

    Caroline Scotti-Saintagne

  7. Scion (New Zealand Forest Research Institute Ltd.), 49 Sala St., Whakarewarewa, Rotorua, 3046, New Zealand

    Jaroslav Klápštĕ

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  1. Ilga Porth
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  2. Pauline Garnier-Géré
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  7. Antoine Kremer
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Correspondence to Ilga Porth.

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Funding

We acknowledge funding through the Commission of the European Communities, Community research programme ‘Quality of Life and Management of Living Resources’ (Project OAKFLOW QLK5-2000-00960) for this study.

Data archiving statement

Sequence information of qutub8 is available under GenBank accession AY704406.

Sampling locations, morphological data and genotypes are available as supplement material (Tables S3, S4, S5, S6).

Additional information

Communicated by F. Gugerli

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

ESM 1

Fig. S1. Map with spatial positions (distances in cm) of adult trees indicating the species identity (152 Quercus robur and 224 Q. petraea as well as 16 individuals with uncertain species identity) based on leaf morphology measures (U. Csaikl, pers. com.) and the presence of two sampled alleles in the intensively studied plot ISP SH (Sigmundsherberg). (PDF 147 kb)

ESM 2

Fig. S2. Histograms with frequency distributions of the 14 sampled alleles at qutub8 (where allele 1 is corresponding to a222 and allele 10 is corresponding to a236) based on sampling individuals from naturally regenerated mixed Quercus robur/Q. petraea stands at 10 European locations. The ISP IDs are provided in Table 1. White columns: Q. petraea; black columns: Q. robur. (PDF 108 kb)

ESM 3

Table S1. Phenotypic correlations between leaf morphology traits in oak. (XLSX 23 kb)

ESM 4

Table S2. A. Associations for qutub8 allele variation and variability in leaf morphology employing allele dosage (for alleles a222, a236) and genotypic class models (comprehensive results). B. Associations for qutub8 allele variation and variability in leaf morphology employing allele dosage (for alleles a222, a236) and genotypic class models in the intensively studied plot ISP SH (Sigmundsherberg). (XLSX 17 kb)

ESM 5

Table S3. Sampling locations and genotype data for all ISPs. (XLS 114 kb)

ESM 6

Table S4. Sampling locations and genotype data for ISP SH. (XLS 76 kb)

ESM 7

Table S5. Morphology data for ISP SH. (XLSX 155 kb)

ESM 8

Table S6. Sampling locations and phenotype data for all ISPs. (XLS 1297 kb)

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Porth, I., Garnier-Géré, P., Klápštĕ, J. et al. Species-specific alleles at a β-tubulin gene show significant associations with leaf morphological variation within Quercus petraea and Q. robur populations. Tree Genetics & Genomes 12, 81 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11295-016-1041-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11295-016-1041-8

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