Heritability and quantitative genetic divergence of serotiny, a fire-persistence plant trait.

ABSTRACT:

Background and aims

Although it is well known that fire acts as a selective pressure shaping plant phenotypes, there are no quantitative estimates of the heritability of any trait related to plant persistence under recurrent fires, such as serotiny. In this study, the heritability of serotiny in Pinus halepensis is calculated, and an evaluation is made as to whether fire has left a selection signature on the level of serotiny among populations by comparing the genetic divergence of serotiny with the expected divergence of neutral molecular markers (QST-FST comparison).

Methods

A common garden of P. halepensis was used, located in inland Spain and composed of 145 open-pollinated families from 29 provenances covering the entire natural range of P. halepensis in the Iberian Pen

SUBMITTER: Hernandez-Serrano A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4204669 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature