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Habitat fragmentation, genetic diversity, and inbreeding depression in a threatened grassland legume: is genetic rescue necessary?

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Abstract

Kincaid’s lupine (Lupinus oreganus), a threatened perennial legume of western Oregon grasslands, is composed of small, fragmented populations that have consistently low natural seed set, suggesting they may have accumulated high enough levels of genetic load to be candidates for genetic rescue. We used simple sequence repeat (SSR) loci, both nuclear DNA and chloroplast DNA, to screen populations throughout the species’ range for evidence of severe inbreeding and recent genetic bottlenecks due to habitat fragmentation. After genotyping about 40% of the known populations, only one of 24 populations had strong statistical evidence for a recent genetic bottleneck (H e > H eq). Both mean nSSR fixation coefficients and genetic diversity did not statistically differ between very small, small, medium, and large lupine population size classes. Within population chloroplast DNA haplotype number was high for an animal pollinated species, ≈4.2 haplotypes/population, and within population haplotype diversity was also relatively evenly distributed. Within population patterns of nSSR and cpSSR genetic diversity suggest that genetic diversity has not been lost over the last century of habitat fragmentation. With genet lifespan thought to exceed 100 years, overlap of several to many generations, and substantial reductions in seed set from inbreeding depression that shifts cohort composition towards those generated by outcrossing events, Kincaid’s lupine is likely maintain the currently high levels of within population genetic diversity. The case of Kincaid’s lupine provides an example of how the assumptions of severe inbreeding depression with small population size and habitat fragmentation can be inaccurate.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Quentin Cronk (University of British Columbia) for primers to LEGCYCLOIDEA and Brian Knaus for sharing chloroplast SSR primers. K. Karoly and two anonymous reviewers made comments that helped improve this manuscript. P. M. Severns thanks Emma Bradford, Tri Tran, Mariah Parker-deFenix, and Stephanie McKnight for their help in the lab, the Kuhls, The Nature Conservancy (Jason Nuckols and Greg Fitzpatrick), Starker Forest, and the numerous other private landowners who wished to remain anonymous, for granting access to Kincaid’s and spurred lupine populations. Joe Arnett, Sam Friedman, and Steve Smith provided access to study sites and provided invaluable information on local populations. This research was funded by the Eugene District (Sally Villegas) and Roseburg District (Sam Friedman) Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Portand District (Mikki Collins) and Lacey District (Ted Thomas) Offices, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Fern Ridge Project (James Beal and Wes Messinger), Native Plant Society of Oregon, Bonnie Templeton Endowment Fund, Hardman Native Plant Research Endowment, Leslie and Vera Gottlieb Research Award in Plant Evolutionary Biology, and the Moldenke Plant Systematics Endowment.

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  1. Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, Oregon State University, 2082 Cordley Hall, Corvallis, OR, 97331, USA

    Paul M. Severns, Aaron Liston & Mark V. Wilson

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  1. Paul M. Severns
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Correspondence to Paul M. Severns.

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Severns, P.M., Liston, A. & Wilson, M.V. Habitat fragmentation, genetic diversity, and inbreeding depression in a threatened grassland legume: is genetic rescue necessary?. Conserv Genet 12, 881–893 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10592-011-0191-3

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