Less pollen-mediated gene flow for more signatures of glacial lineages: congruent evidence from balsam fir cpDNA and mtDNA for multiple refugia in eastern and central North America.

ABSTRACT: The phylogeographic structure and postglacial history of balsam fir (Abies balsamea), a transcontinental North American boreal conifer, was inferred using mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) markers. Genetic structure among 107 populations (mtDNA data) and 75 populations (cpDNA data) was analyzed using Bayesian and genetic distance approaches. Population differentiation was high for mtDNA (dispersed by seeds only), but also for cpDNA (dispersed by seeds and pollen), indicating that pollen gene flow is more restricted in balsam fir than in other boreal conifers. Low cpDNA gene flow in balsam fir may relate to low pollen production due to the inherent biology of the species and populations being decimated by recurrent spruce budworm epidemics, and/or to low dispersal of pol

SUBMITTER: Cinget B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4388536 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature