Morphological and genetic differentiation of Saxifraga hirculus L. (Saxifragaceae) populations in Lithuania

• Main Authors: Meškauskaitė, Edita, Naugžemys, Donatas, Žvingila, Donatas, Naujalis, Jonas Remigijus
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: RAPD; Genetic differentiation; Heterozigosity; Morfological feature; Density; Saxifraga hirculus
• Online Access: http://vu.lvb.lt/VU:ELABAPDB4316523&prefLang=en_US

Summarized data of investigations of nine Saxifraga hirculus L. populations in Lithuania are presented. The abundance of populations is low, normally from one to fifteen floral shoots in a 0.25 m2 plot. Ecologic density and morphologic features of S. hirculus highly varies throughout different habitats in Lithuania. S. hirculus populations in Lithuania are characterized by medium plasticity of phenotypic features of generative individuals. The diversity of RAPD markers was studied in 76 plants of Saxifraga hirculus from five populations in Lithuania. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) showed high level of differentiation among studied populations of S. hirculus. The interpopulation variance component accounted for 27%. The genetic distance between populations ranged from 0.168 to 0.258. We found no correlation between the genetic and geographic distances of the study S. hirculus populations. The level of average heterozygosity was highest in Galvydiske population (0.338) and the lowest in Juodle population (0.295).