SHORT COMMUNICATION Effect of fluoride pollution on genetic variability of Larix gmelinii (Pinaceae) in East Siberia

• Main Authors: Vladimir N. Shmakov, Æ Yuri, M. Konstantinov
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Yakutia; Siberia
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.501.4248; http://www.ibss.febras.ru/files/00005541.pdf

Abstract The genetic variability of four natural popula-tions of Larix gmelinii from East Siberia was determined and compared by RAPD analysis. Comparison of the RAPD profiles provided an estimation of variability in 193 RAPD fragments. More than 89 % of these fragments were found to be polymorphic. The main genetic variability parameters of the two populations from Central Yakutia, a region free of fluoride pollution, had considerably higher values than those from East Transbaikalia, a region potentially affected by fluoride pollution (FLU, near a fluorite quarry growing on soils with a high natural content of fluorides). AMOVA revealed that 72.94 % of the varia-tion was within populations, while only 7.05 % of the variation was between populations within geographical regions. The genetic diversity of the FLU fluoride-tolerant population was the lowest, but only slightly lower than that of a fluoride non-tolerant population from Chita, 50 km distant from FLU. Although this study demonstrates the absence of fundamental alterations of genetic structure within the populations of L. gmelinii growing on soils with a high content of fluorides, it is presumed that the reduction of genetic diversity was the genetic response of the FLU population to such an environmental stress as a constantly high concentration of fluorides within the soil.