Temperature and precipitation, but not geographic distance, explain genetic relatedness among populations in the perennial grass Festuca rubra

0509594 - BÚ 2020 RIV GB eng J - Journal Article
Šurinová, Mária - Hadincová, Věroslava - Vandvik, V. - Münzbergová, Zuzana
Temperature and precipitation, but not geographic distance, explain genetic relatedness among populations in the perennial grass Festuca rubra.
Journal of Plant Ecology. Roč. 12, č. 4 (2019), s. 730-741. ISSN 1752-9921. E-ISSN 1752-993X
R&D Projects: GA ČR GA19-00522S
Institutional support: RVO:67985939
Keywords : AMOVA * hexaploid * isolation by environment
OECD category: Plant sciences, botany
Impact factor: 1.833, year: 2019
Method of publishing: Open access

We studied genetic variation within and among 12 populations of the dominant grass Festuca rubra distributed across a unique regional-scale climatic grid in western Norway, Europe and explored the importance of temperature, precipitation and geographic distance for the observed patterns. We also explored the distribution of genetic diversity within and among populations, identified population differentiation and estimated degree of clonality. The analyses used microsatellites as the genetic marker. The analyses were supplemented by flow cytometry of all the material. All the material corresponds to hexaploid cytotype, indicating that ploidy variation does not play any role in the system. The results indicate that temperature and precipitation were better predictors of genetic relatedness of the populations than geographic distance, suggesting that temperature and precipitation may be important determinants of population differentiation. In addition, precipitation, alone and in interaction with temperature, strongly affected population genotypic diversity suggesting increased clonality towards the coldest and especially the coldest wettest climates. At the same time, individuals from the coldest and wettest climates also had the highest individual genetic diversity, suggesting that only the most heterozygous individuals survive under these harsh climates. Most of the genetic variation was distributed within populations, suggesting that most populations have sufficient genetic diversity to adapt to novel climatic conditions. The alpine populations, i.e. populations which are likely the most endangered by climate change, however, lack this potential due to the high levels of clonality as detected in our study.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0304475