Resilience of genetic diversity in forest trees over the Quaternary

Bibliographic Details
Title: Resilience of genetic diversity in forest trees over the Quaternary
Authors: Pascal Milesi, Chedly Kastally, Benjamin Dauphin, Sandra Cervantes, Francesca Bagnoli, Katharina B. Budde, Stephen Cavers, Bruno Fady, Patricia Faivre-Rampant, Santiago C. González-Martínez, Delphine Grivet, Felix Gugerli, Véronique Jorge, Isabelle Lesur Kupin, Dario I. Ojeda, Sanna Olsson, Lars Opgenoorth, Sara Pinosio, Christophe Plomion, Christian Rellstab, Odile Rogier, Simone Scalabrin, Ivan Scotti, Giovanni G. Vendramin, Marjana Westergren, Martin Lascoux, Tanja Pyhäjärvi, On behalf of the GenTree Consortium
Source: Nature Communications, Vol 15, Iss 1, Pp 1-13 (2024)
Publisher Information: Nature Portfolio, 2024.
Publication Year: 2024
Collection: LCC:Science
Subject Terms: Science
More Details: Abstract The effect of past environmental changes on the demography and genetic diversity of natural populations remains a contentious issue and has rarely been investigated across multiple, phylogenetically distant species. Here, we perform comparative population genomic analyses and demographic inferences for seven widely distributed and ecologically contrasting European forest tree species based on concerted sampling of 164 populations across their natural ranges. For all seven species, the effective population size, N e , increased or remained stable over many glacial cycles and up to 15 million years in the most extreme cases. Surprisingly, the drastic environmental changes associated with the Pleistocene glacial cycles have had little impact on the level of genetic diversity of dominant forest tree species, despite major shifts in their geographic ranges. Based on their trajectories of N e over time, the seven tree species can be divided into three major groups, highlighting the importance of life history and range size in determining synchronous variation in genetic diversity over time. Altogether, our results indicate that forest trees have been able to retain their evolutionary potential over very long periods of time despite strong environmental changes.
Document Type: article
File Description: electronic resource
Language: English
ISSN: 2041-1723
Relation: https://doaj.org/toc/2041-1723
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-52612-y
Access URL: https://doaj.org/article/ce435198aeef4ab0b47bcfd2a1aaa57c
Accession Number: edsdoj.435198aeef4ab0b47bcfd2a1aaa57c
Database: Directory of Open Access Journals
More Details
ISSN:20411723
DOI:10.1038/s41467-024-52612-y
Published in:Nature Communications
Language:English