Genetic diversity, population structure, and differentiation of Siberian larch, Gmelin larch, and Cajander larch on SSR-marker data

Abstract

The genetic diversity of SSR markers was studied in six populations of Siberian larch, two popu-lations of Gmelin larch, and four populations of Cajander larch. Seven pairs of nuclear microsatellite loci were used for this analysis. 103 allelic variants were detected in 365 individuals of three species of larch. According to the AMOVA results, the variability proportion that characterizes the differences between three Larix species was twice as higher (15%) than the proportion that accounts for among-population differences within the species (6%). The differentiation of the populations of three species of larch based on SSR markers exceeded 12% (F ST = 0.121). A significant correlation of the genetic distances with the geographic distances between populations was found (r = 0.835, P = 0.01).