High Genetic Differentiation among European White Oak Species (Quercus spp.) at a Dehydrin Gene

Authors

  • Iacob CRĂCIUNESC Transilvania University of Brasov, Department of Forest Sciences, Sirul Beethoven 1, 500123, Brasov (RO)
  • Barbara VORNAM University of Göttingen, Büsgen Institute, Section of Forest Genetics and Forest Tree Breeding, Büsgenweg 2, 37077 Göttingen (DE)
  • Ludger LEINEMANN University of Göttingen, Büsgen Institute, Section of Forest Genetics and Forest Tree Breeding, Büsgenweg 2, 37077 Göttingen (DE)
  • Reiner FINKELDEY University of Göttingen, Büsgen Institute, Section of Forest Genetics and Forest Tree Breeding, Büsgenweg 2, 37077 Göttingen (DE)
  • Neculae ȘOFLETEA Transilvania University of Brasov, Department of Forest Sciences, Șirul Beethoven 1, 500123, Brașov (RO)
  • Alexandru L. CURTU Transilvania University of Brasov, Department of Forest Sciences, Șirul Beethoven 1, 500123, Brașov (RO)

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15835/nbha43210128

Keywords:

dehydrin gene, genetic differentiation, oaks, outlier loci

Abstract

Dehydryn genes are involved in plant response to environmental stress and may be useful to examine functional diversity in relation to adaptive variation. Recently, a dehydrin gene (DHN3) was isolated in Quercus petraea and showed little differentiation between populations of the same species in an altitudinal transect. In the present study, inter- and intraspecific differentiation patterns in closely related and interfertile oaks were investigated for the first time at the DHN3 locus. A four-oak-species stand (Quercus frainetto Ten., Q. petraea (Matt.) Liebl., Q. pubescens Willd., Q. robur L.) and two populations for each of five white oak species (Q. frainetto Ten., Q. petraea (Matt.) Liebl., Q. pubescens Willd., Q. robur L. and Q. pedunculiflora K. Koch) were analyzed. Three alleles shared by all five oak species were observed. However, only two alleles were present in each population, but with different frequencies according to the species. At population level, all interspecific pairs of populations showed significant differentiation, except for pure Q. robur and Q. pedunculiflora populations. In contrast, no significant differentiation (p > 0.05) was found among conspecific populations. The DHN3 locus proved to be very useful to differentiate Q. frainetto and Q. pubescens from Q. pedunculiflora (FST = 0.914 and 0.660, respectively) and Q. robur (FST = 0.858 and 0.633, respectively). As expected, the lowest level of differentiation was detected between the most closely related species, Q. robur and Q. pedunculiflora (FST = 0.020). Our results suggest that DHN3 can be an important genetic marker for differentiating among European white oak species.

Downloads

Published

2015-12-10

How to Cite

CRĂCIUNESC, I., VORNAM, B., LEINEMANN, L., FINKELDEY, R., ȘOFLETEA, N., & CURTU, A. L. (2015). High Genetic Differentiation among European White Oak Species (Quercus spp.) at a Dehydrin Gene. Notulae Botanicae Horti Agrobotanici Cluj-Napoca, 43(2), 582–588. https://doi.org/10.15835/nbha43210128

Issue

Section

Research Articles
CITATION
DOI: 10.15835/nbha43210128

Most read articles by the same author(s)