Evolutionary Migration of the Disjunct Salt Cress Eutrema salsugineum (= Thellungiella salsuginea, Brassicaceae) between Asia and North America

PLoS One

Xiao-Juan Wang¹  Xin-Yu Wang¹  Yong-Shuai Sun¹  Jian-Quan Liu¹  Da-Chuan Shi²  Juan Wang² 

[1] MOE Key Laboratory for Bio-resources and Eco-environment, College of Life Science, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China;Molecular Ecology Group, Key Laboratory of Arid and Grassland Ecology, School of Life Science, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China

关键词: Genetic loci;    Population genetics;    Asia;    Phylogeography;    Haplotypes;    North America;    Paleogenetics;    China;   

DOI  :  10.1371/journal.pone.0124010

学科分类：医学（综合）

来源: Public Library of Science

【 摘 要 】

Eutrema salsugineum (= Thellungiella salsuginea Brassicaceae), a species growing in highly saline habitats, is a good model for use in salt-stress research. However, its evolutionary migrations and genetic variations within and between disjunct regions from central Asia to northern China and North America remain largely unknown. We examined genetic variations and phylogeographic patterns of this species by sequencing ITS, 9 chloroplast (cp) DNA fragments (4379 bp) and 10 unlinked nuclear loci (6510 bp) of 24 populations across its distributional range. All markers suggested the high genetic poverty of this species and the limited number of genetic variations recovered was congruently partitioned between central Asia, northern China and North America. Further modelling of nuclear population-genetic data based on approximate bayesian computation (ABC) analyses indicated that the long-distance dispersals after the recent origin of E. salsugineum may have occurred from central Asia to the other two regions respectively within 20000 years. The fast demographic expansions should have occurred in northern China in a more recent past. Our study highlights the importance of using ABC analyses and nuclear population genetic data to trace evolutionary migrations of the disjunct distributions of the plants in the recent past.

【 授权许可】

CC BY