Genetic diversity, genetic structure and demographic history of Cycas simplicipinna(Cycadaceae) assessed by DNA sequences and SSR markers

BMC Plant Biology

Research Article

Xun Gong¹  Xiuyan Feng²  Yuehua Wang³ 

[1] Key Laboratory for Plant Diversity and Biogeography of East Asia, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, China;Key Laboratory for Plant Diversity and Biogeography of East Asia, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, China;University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China;Plant Science Institute, School of Life Sciences, Yunnan University, Kunming, China;

关键词: Cycas simplicipinna;    Pleistocene;    Genetic differentiation;    Population contraction;    In situ;    Ex situ;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2229-14-187

 received in 2013-12-19, accepted in 2014-07-03,  发布年份 2014

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundCycas simplicipinna (T. Smitinand) K. Hill. (Cycadaceae) is an endangered species in China. There were seven populations and 118 individuals that we could collect were genotyped in this study. Here, we assessed the genetic diversity, genetic structure and demographic history of this species.ResultsAnalyses of data of DNA sequences (two maternally inherited intergenic spacers of chloroplast, cpDNA and one biparentally inherited internal transcribed spacer region ITS4-ITS5, nrDNA) and sixteen microsatellite loci (SSR) were conducted in the species. Of the 118 samples, 86 individuals from the seven populations were used for DNA sequencing and 115 individuals from six populations were used for the microsatellite study. We found high genetic diversity at the species level, low genetic diversity within each of the seven populations and high genetic differentiation among the populations. There was a clear genetic structure within populations of C. simplicipinna. A demographic history inferred from DNA sequencing data indicates that C. simplicipinna experienced a recent population contraction without retreating to a common refugium during the last glacial period. The results derived from SSR data also showed that C. simplicipinna underwent past effective population contraction, likely during the Pleistocene.ConclusionsSome genetic features of C. simplicipinna such as having high genetic differentiation among the populations, a clear genetic structure and a recent population contraction could provide guidelines for protecting this endangered species from extinction. Furthermore, the genetic features with population dynamics of the species in our study would help provide insights and guidelines for protecting other endangered species effectively.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Feng et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2014. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.