Genetic Differentiation of Upland and Bog Populations of Scots Pine on the Russian Plain

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575.17+575.167

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Abstract

Pine forests dominated by Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) and growing on bogs occupy a considerable part of the forested area of the East European Plain. Those populations of woody plants that moved from the uplands to bogs during the Holocene had to adapt to entirely different environmental factors.  As a result, there appeared a range of diverse Scots pine morphotypes. In terms of major factors of their soil environment, such as toxic acid peat substrate with excess moisture content, and in terms of their structure and efficiency of the entire biogeocenosis, bog forests (especially those on raised bogs) are almost “diametrically opposite” to the pine forests of the adjacent uplands. The research aimed to summarize the main results of the zonal-geographical study of allozyme-genetic polymorphism and differentiation of Scots pine colonies on uplands and adjacent bogs of the forested area of the East European Plain. The main results (polymorphism and genetic subdivision of populations) were obtained using native protein systems electrophoresis. Our many-sided ecological and genetic researches in Western Siberia indicate that long-term phenological reproductive isolation, disruptive selection and other microevolution factors could have caused more or less significant genetic divergence of bog and adjacent upland populations of Scots pine. The comparative zonal-geographical research of alloziyme structure, polymorphism and differentiation was carried out in four subzones (northern, middle, southern taiga and mixed coniferous-deciduous forests) of the forested area of the East European Plain. The quantity of polymorphous loci and the average number of alleles slightly decreases in the direction from the northern taiga to the subzone of mixed coniferous-deciduous forests. The analysis of the zonal-geographical differences of Nei's genetic distance indicates that, on the average, the differentiation is increasing wedge-like from the northern to the middle and southern taiga and to forest-steppe. A similar regularity had earlier been detected in Western Siberia. Genetic differentiation is perceived to be connected with a set of influencing factors. The results of our research fully support the theory of genetic divergence of bog populations of Pinus sylvestris L. from the upland ones in the Holocene.

Authors

I.V. Petrova, S.N. Sannikov, O.E. Cherepanova, N.S. Sannikova Botanical Garden, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Affiliation

Botanical Garden, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Keywords

Pinus sylvestris L., population, polymorphism, reproductive isolation, genetic differentiation.