Genetic diversity in the natural populations of Pinus dalatensis Ferré-Pinaceae assessed by SSR makers

Abstract

Pinus dalatensis Ferré (Family: Pinaceae) is an endemic plant with restricted habitats at higher altitudes in highland of Vietnam. The species is now near threatened by over-exploitatioD and habitat destruction. The genetic variation within and among populations of p. dalatensis was investigated by 41 microsatellite (single sequence repeat, SSR) primers, but only 11 SSR primers showed polymorphism bands. In all, 70 sampled trees collected from six populations located in different altitude (Xa Hieu, Dak Glei and Ngoc Linh in Kon Turn, Da Chais in Lam Đong, Hoa Son in Dak Lak and A Yxm in Gia Lai) in highland of Vietnam were analyzed in this study. Among 40 putative genetic alleles were amplified, of which 39 were polymorphic (accounting for 97.5 %). The mean number of alleles per locus was 2.197. The SSR data showed a genetic diversity parameters within populations with an average of/= 0.524, ,fíb = 0.222, He =317, Fis =0.333 and Ap ~ 0.106. The number private aUeles (Ap) was only foimd in four populations, the Hoa Son population showed the highest (0.273), followed by Da Chais (0.182), and value of 0.091 for all Ngoc Linh and A Yun. Analysis of molecular variance analysis showed that most genetic variation was within populations of 57.504 % and among population of 42.496 %. The population pafrwise differentiations indicated that most of the populations were significantly differentiated p < 0.001 with Fst values ranged from 0.195 to 0.418. This study highlights the importance of conserving the genetic resources ofp. dalatensừ species.