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Origin area and migration route: Chloroplast DNA diversity in the arctic-alpine plant Koenigia islandica

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Abstract

The Hengduan Mountains (henceforth H-D Mountains) on the Tibet Plateau are a distribution and diversity center for many alpine genera. We examine patterns of genetic variation in an arctic-alpine plant to evaluate the possibility that the H-D Mountains constitute the area of origin of the species as well as to uncover postglacial migration routes. 220 individuals of the arctic-alpine plant Koenigia islandica were sampled from 26 populations distributed in western China and northern Finland. DNA haplotypes were identified using restriction site analysis of two chloroplast DNA intergene spacer regions, atpB-rbcL and trnL-trnF. We examined the geographical distribution of haplotype diversity in relation to latitude, and also compared various indices of diversity in putatively glaciated and unglaciated regions. Patterns of migration were inferred using nested clade analysis. A total of 25 haplotypes were detected. High haplotype diversity was found in the H-D Mountains. H3 and its radiated haplotypes were distributed in the Himalayas. Two haplotypes were fixed concurrently in the H-D Mountains and northern Finland. High genetic diversity of K. islandica and high species diversity of K. islandica are expected in the origin area. Our observations suggest that the H-D Mountains are not only the place of origin of K. islandica, but also the refugia for K. islandica on the Tibet Plateau. What is more, the migration route for the arctic-alpine plant K. islandica must have originated in the region defined by the H-D Mountains in western China extending northward to the Arctic circumpolar, and moved westward along the Himalayas, then northward across the Altay Mountains and the Central Siberian Plateau at different time periods.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Resources and Environmental Engineering, Anhui University, Anhui Biodiversity Information Center, Hefei, 230601, China

    Cong Long, YunJiang Min, XiuXia Zhao, ChunLei Yany & ZhongZe Zhou

  2. Department of Biological and Pharmaceutical Engineering, West Anhui University, Liu’an, 237012, China

    YunJiang Min

  3. Key Laboratory for Plant Diversity and Biogeography of East Asia, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, 650204, China

    Hang Sun

  4. Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100029, China

    HouYuan Lü

  5. Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, 210008, China

    LingYu Tang

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Long, C., Min, Y., Zhao, X. et al. Origin area and migration route: Chloroplast DNA diversity in the arctic-alpine plant Koenigia islandica . Sci. China Earth Sci. 57, 1760–1770 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-014-4819-2

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