Genetic diversity and structure of Carpinus laxiflora populations in South Korea based on AFLP markers

Abstract We applied eight primer-restriction enzyme combinations to investigate genetic diversity, genetic differentiation, and genetic structure of Carpinus laxiflora populations with AFLP markers. The average of effective alleles (Ae), the proportion of polymorphic loci (%P), Shannon’s diversity index (I), and the expected heterozygosity (He) were 1.4, 82.2%, 0.371, and 0.241, respectively. The expected heterozygosity (Hj) from Bayesian method was 0.270. The level of genetic diversity was high compared to those of Carpinus species and other species with a similar life history. The inbreeding coefficient (FIS) from approximated Bayesian method was 0.618, which was smaller than that for Acer pseudosieboldianum (FIS=0.712). Genetic differentiation was 0.060 from AMOVA (ΦST) and 0.056 from Bayesian method (θII). The level of genetic differentiation was very small compared to that of Carpinus species and other species with a similar life history. According to UPGMA and Bayesian clustering, 10 populations were divided into two genetic groups. Except Mt. Chilgap and Minjuji, most of the populations were detected as weak genetic structures according to the geographical distribution such as mountain ranges. We might consider that demographic disturbance, local specific vegetation change history, and forest succession interrupted the genetic structure of C. laxiflora in South Korea