Genetic diversity maintained among fragmented populations of a tree undergoing range contraction
Dwarf birch (Betula nana) has a widespread boreal distribution but has declined significantly in Britain where populations are now highly fragmented. We analyzed the genetic diversity of these fragmented populations using markers that differ in mutation rate: conventional microsatellites markers (PC...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:6134035 2023-05-15T15:44:29+02:00 Genetic diversity maintained among fragmented populations of a tree undergoing range contraction Borrell, James S. Wang, Nian Nichols, Richard A. Buggs, Richard J. A. 2018-08-15 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6134035/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30111882 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41437-018-0132-8 en eng Springer International Publishing http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6134035/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30111882 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41437-018-0132-8 © The Author(s) 2018 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. CC-BY Article Text 2018 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1038/s41437-018-0132-8 2018-09-16T00:28:40Z Dwarf birch (Betula nana) has a widespread boreal distribution but has declined significantly in Britain where populations are now highly fragmented. We analyzed the genetic diversity of these fragmented populations using markers that differ in mutation rate: conventional microsatellites markers (PCR-SSRs), RADseq generated transition and transversion SNPs (RAD-SNPs), and microsatellite markers mined from RADseq reads (RAD-SSRs). We estimated the current population sizes by census and indirectly, from the linkage-disequilibrium found in the genetic surveys. The two types of estimate were highly correlated. Overall, we found genetic diversity to be only slightly lower in Britain than across a comparable area in Scandinavia where populations are large and continuous. While the ensemble of British fragments maintain diversity levels close to Scandinavian populations, individually they have drifted apart and lost diversity; particularly the smaller populations. An ABC analysis, based on coalescent models, favors demographic scenarios in which Britain maintained high levels of genetic diversity through post-glacial re-colonization. This diversity has subsequently been partitioned into population fragments that have recently lost diversity at a rate corresponding to the current population-size estimates. We conclude that the British population fragments retain sufficient genetic resources to be the basis of conservation and re-planting programmes. Use of markers with different mutation rates gives us greater confidence and insight than one marker set could have alone, and we suggest that RAD-SSRs are particularly useful as high mutation-rate marker set with a well-specified ascertainment bias, which are widely available yet often neglected in existing RAD datasets. Text Betula nana Dwarf birch PubMed Central (PMC) Heredity 121 4 304 318 |
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Article Borrell, James S. Wang, Nian Nichols, Richard A. Buggs, Richard J. A. Genetic diversity maintained among fragmented populations of a tree undergoing range contraction |
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Article |
description |
Dwarf birch (Betula nana) has a widespread boreal distribution but has declined significantly in Britain where populations are now highly fragmented. We analyzed the genetic diversity of these fragmented populations using markers that differ in mutation rate: conventional microsatellites markers (PCR-SSRs), RADseq generated transition and transversion SNPs (RAD-SNPs), and microsatellite markers mined from RADseq reads (RAD-SSRs). We estimated the current population sizes by census and indirectly, from the linkage-disequilibrium found in the genetic surveys. The two types of estimate were highly correlated. Overall, we found genetic diversity to be only slightly lower in Britain than across a comparable area in Scandinavia where populations are large and continuous. While the ensemble of British fragments maintain diversity levels close to Scandinavian populations, individually they have drifted apart and lost diversity; particularly the smaller populations. An ABC analysis, based on coalescent models, favors demographic scenarios in which Britain maintained high levels of genetic diversity through post-glacial re-colonization. This diversity has subsequently been partitioned into population fragments that have recently lost diversity at a rate corresponding to the current population-size estimates. We conclude that the British population fragments retain sufficient genetic resources to be the basis of conservation and re-planting programmes. Use of markers with different mutation rates gives us greater confidence and insight than one marker set could have alone, and we suggest that RAD-SSRs are particularly useful as high mutation-rate marker set with a well-specified ascertainment bias, which are widely available yet often neglected in existing RAD datasets. |
format |
Text |
author |
Borrell, James S. Wang, Nian Nichols, Richard A. Buggs, Richard J. A. |
author_facet |
Borrell, James S. Wang, Nian Nichols, Richard A. Buggs, Richard J. A. |
author_sort |
Borrell, James S. |
title |
Genetic diversity maintained among fragmented populations of a tree undergoing range contraction |
title_short |
Genetic diversity maintained among fragmented populations of a tree undergoing range contraction |
title_full |
Genetic diversity maintained among fragmented populations of a tree undergoing range contraction |
title_fullStr |
Genetic diversity maintained among fragmented populations of a tree undergoing range contraction |
title_full_unstemmed |
Genetic diversity maintained among fragmented populations of a tree undergoing range contraction |
title_sort |
genetic diversity maintained among fragmented populations of a tree undergoing range contraction |
publisher |
Springer International Publishing |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6134035/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30111882 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41437-018-0132-8 |
genre |
Betula nana Dwarf birch |
genre_facet |
Betula nana Dwarf birch |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6134035/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30111882 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41437-018-0132-8 |
op_rights |
© The Author(s) 2018 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
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CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41437-018-0132-8 |
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