Abstract
We have examined patterns of variation of several kinds of molecular markers (isozymes, RFLPs of ribosomal DNA and anonymous low-copy number DNA, RAPDs and microsatellites) and an adaptive trait [date of bud set in Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.)]. The study included Finnish Scots pine populations (from latitude 60°N to 70°N) which experience a steep climatic gradient. Common garden experiments show that these populations are adapted to the location of their origin and genetically differentiated in adaptive quantitative traits, e.g. the date of bud set in first-year seedlings. In the northernmost population, bud set took place about 21 days earlier than in the southernmost population. Of the total variation in bud set, 36.4% was found among the populations. All molecular markers showed high levels of within-population variation, while differentiation among populations was low. Among all the studied markers, microsatellites were the most variable (He=0.77). Differences between populations were small, GST was less than 0.02. Our study suggests that molecular markers may be poor predictors of the population differentiation of quantitative traits in Scots pine, as exemplified here by bud-set date.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adams WT, Strauss SH, Copes DL, Griffin AR (1992) Population genetics of forest trees. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, The Netherlands
Aho M-L (1994) Autumn frost hardening of 1-year-old Pinus sylvestris (L.) seedlings: effect of origin and parent trees. Scand J For Res 9:17–24
Barton NH, Turelli M (1989) Evolutionary quantitative genetics: how little do we know? Annu Rev Genet 23:337–370
Campbell RK (1979) Genecology of Douglas-fir in a watershed in the Oregon cascades. Ecology 60:1036–1950
Cornelius J (1994) Heritabilities and additive coefficients of variation in forest trees. Can J For Res 24:372–379
Devey ME, Jermstad KD, Tauer CG, Neale DB (1991) Inheritance of RFLP loci in a loblolly pine three-generation pedigree. Theor Appl Genet 83:238–242
Doyle JJ, Doyle JL (1990) Isolation of plant DNA from fresh tissue. BRL Focus 12:13–15
Eiche V (1966) Cold damage and plant mortality in experimental plantations with Scots pine in northern Sweden. Stud For Suecica 36:1–218
Eriksson G, Andersen S, Eiche V, Ifver I, Persson A (1980) Severity index and transfer effects on survival and volume production of Pinus sylvestris in northern Sweden. Stud For Suecica 156:1–32
Fowler DP, Morris RW (1977) Genetic diversity in red pine: evidence for low genic heterozygosity. Can J For Res 7:343–347
Groover A, Devey M, Fiddler T, Lee J, Megraw R, Mitchel-Olds T, Sherman B, Vujcic S, Williams C, Neale D (1994) Identification of quantitative trait loci influencing wood specific gravity in an outbred pedigree of loblolly pine. Genetics 138:1293–1300
Gullberg U, Yazdani R, Rudin D, Ryman N (1985) Allozyme variation in Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) in Sweden. Silvae Genet 34:193–200
Hamrick JL, Godt MJ, Sherman-Broyles, SL (1992) Factors influencing levels of genetic diversity in woody plant species. New For 6:95–124.
Harju A, Muona O (1989) Background pollination in Pinus sylvestris seed orchards. Scand J For Res 4:513–520
Hartl DL, Clark AG (1989) Principles of population genetics. Sinauer Associates Inc., Sunderland, Massachusetts
Hedrick PW (1985) Genetics of populations. Jones and Bartlett Publisher, Boston, Massachusetts
Houle D (1992) Comparing evolvability and variability of qualitative traits. Genetics 130:195–204
Hutcheson K (1970) A test for comparing diversities based on the Shannon formula. J Theor Biol 29:151–154
Jeffreys AJ, Royle NJ, Wilson V, Wong Z (1988) Spontaneous mutation rates to new length alleles at tandem-repetitive hypervariable loci in human DNA. Nature 332:278–281
Karvonen P, Savolainen O (1993) Variation and inheritance of ribosomal DNA in Pinus sylvestris L. (Scots pine). Heredity 71: 614–622
Karvonen P, Karjalainen M, Savolainen O (1993) Ribosomal RNA genes in Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L): chromosomal organization and structure. Genetica 88:59–68
Kimura M (1983) The neutral theory of molecular evolution. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK
Koski V (1970) A study of pollen dispersal as a mechanism of gene flow. Commun Inst For Fenn 70:1–78
Li P, Adams WT (1994) Genetic variation in cambial phenology of coastal Douglas-fir. Can J For Res 24:1864–1870
Lynch M, Milligan BG (1994) Analysis of population genetic structure with RAPD markers. Mol Ecol 3:91–99
Mikola J (1982) Bud set phenology as an indicator of climatic adaptation of Scots pine in Finland. Silvae Fenn 16:178–184
Milligan BG, Leebens-Mack J, Strand E (1994) Conservation genetics: beyond maintenance of marker diversity. Mol Ecol 3:423–435
Moran GF, Muona O, Bell JC (1989) Acacia mangium: a tropical forest tree of the coastal lowlands with low genetic diversity. Evolution 43:231–235
Mosseler A, Egger KN, Hughes GA (1992) Low levels of genetic diversity in red pine confirmed by random amplified polymorphic DNA markers. Can J For Res 22:1332–1337
Muona O (1990) Population genetics in forest tree improvement. In: Brown AHD, Clegg MT, Kahler AL, Weir BS (eds) Plant population genetics, breeding, and genetic resources. Sinauer Associates Inc., Sunderland, Massachusetts, pp 282–298
Muona O, Harju A (1989) Effective population sizes, genetic variability, and mating systems in natural stands and seeds orchards of Pinus sylvestris. Silvae Genet 38:221–228
Muona O, Harju A, Kärkkäinen K (1988) Genetic comparison of natural and nursery grown seedlings of Pinus sylvestris using allozymes. Scand J For Res 3:37–46
Neale DB, Devey ME, Jermstad MR, Ahuja MC, Alosi MC, Marshall K-A (1992) Use of DNA markers in forest tree improvement research. New For 6:391–407
Nei M (1973) Analysis of gene diversity in subdivided populations. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 70:3321–3323
Rehfeldt GE (1990) Genetic differentiation among populations of Pinus ponderosa from the upper Colorado River Basin. Bot Gaz 151:125–137
Rehfeldt GE (1992) Early selection in Pinus ponderosa: compromises between growth potential and growth rhythm in developing breeding strategies. For Sci 38:661–677
SAS (1987) SAS/STAT guide for personal computers, version 6.1 edition. SAS Institute Inc., Cary, North Carolina
Savolainen O, Hedrick P (1995) Heterozygosity and fitness: no association in Scots pine. Genetics 140:755–766
Smith DN, Devey ME (1995) Occurrence and inheritance of microsatellites in Pinus radiata. Genome 37:977–983
Sokal RR, Rohlf JF (1981) Biometry. W.H. Freeman, San Francisco, California
Strauss SH, Hong Y-P, Hipkins VD (1993) High levels of population differentiation for mitochondrial DNA haplotypes in Pinus radiata, muricata, and attenuata. Theor Appl Genet 86:605–611
Wagner DB, Furnier GR, Saghai-Maroof MA, Williams, SM, Dancik BP, Allard RW (1987) Chloroplast DNA polymorphism in lodgepole and jack pines and their hybrids. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 84: 2097–2100
Wu J, Wagner RS, Krutovskii KV, Strauss SH (1996) Strong differentiation of RAPD markers among populations of knobcone pine (Pinus attenuata). For Genet (in press)
Yang R-C, Yeh FC, Yanchuk AD; A comparison of isozyme and quantitative genetic variation in Pinus contorta ssp. latifolia by FST. Genetics 142:1045–1052
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Communicated by P. M. A. Tigerstedt
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Karhu, A., Hurme, P., Karjalainen, M. et al. Do molecular markers reflect patterns of differentiation in adaptive traits of conifers?. Theoret. Appl. Genetics 93, 215–221 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00225748
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00225748