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Genetic structure and diversity in relation to the recently reduced population size of the rare conifer, Pseudotsuga japonica, endemic to Japan

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A Correction to this article was published on 28 August 2018

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Abstract

Rare species consisting of small populations are subject to random genetic drift, which reduces genetic diversity. Thus, determining the relationship between population size and genetic diversity would provide key information for planning a conservation strategy for rare species. We used six microsatellite markers to investigate seven extant populations of the rare conifer Pseudotsuga japonica, which is endemic to the Kii Peninsula and Shikoku Island regions that are geographically separated by the Kii Channel in southwest Japan. The population differentiation of P. japonica was relatively high (FST = 0.101) for a coniferous species, suggesting limited gene flow among populations. As expected, significant regional differentiation (AMOVA; p < 0.05) indicated genetic divergence across the Kii Channel. A strong positive correlation between census population size and the number of rare alleles (r = 0.862, p < 0.05) was found, but correlations with major indices of genetic diversity were not significant (allelic richness: r = 0.649, p = 0.104, expected heterozygosity: r = 0.361, p = 0.426). The observed order of magnitude of correlation with three genetic diversity indices corresponded with the theoretically expected order of each index’ sensitivity (i.e., the rate of decline per generation) to the bottleneck event. Thus, features that exhibit a faster response, i.e., the number of rare alleles, would have been subject to deleterious effects of the recent decline in population size, which is presumably caused by the development of extensive artificial plantations of other tree species over the last several decades. Finally, we propose a conservation plan for P. japonica based on our findings.

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Change history

  • 28 August 2018

    In the original publication, below was published with incorrect FIS values for three populations Kawamatakannnonn, Ootousan and Senbonyama

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the staff of the Kansai Regional Breeding Office of the Forest Tree Breeding Center for collecting leaf samples. We are particularly grateful to Koji Hashimoto for support with sampling at most sites. We also thank Dr. Naoyuki Nishimura (Gunma University) for advising us to collect leaf samples from a permanent plot managed by his research group. We are also grateful to the education board of Kawakami village for permitting us to collect sampling materials, and to Mayumi Shimoyama for DNA extraction from all samples. Finally, we are grateful to the anonymous reviewers for the insightful and constructive comments, which improved the manuscript greatly.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tohoku Regional Breeding Office, Forest Tree Breeding Center, Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, 95 Oosaki, Takizawa, Iwate, 020-0621, Japan

    Satoshi Tamaki

  2. Genetic Resources Department, Forest Tree Breeding Center, Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, 3809-1 Ishi, Juo, Hitachi, Ibaraki, 319-1301, Japan

    Keiya Isoda & Makoto Takahashi

  3. Kansai Regional Breeding Office, Forest Tree Breeding Center, Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, 1043, Uetsukinaka, Shoo, Katsuta, Okayama, 709-4335, Japan

    Hiroo Yamada

  4. Wakayama Prefectural Forestry Experiment Station, 1504-1 Ikuma, Kamitonda, Wakayama, 649-2103, Japan

    Yumiko Yamashita

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  1. Satoshi Tamaki
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Tamaki, S., Isoda, K., Takahashi, M. et al. Genetic structure and diversity in relation to the recently reduced population size of the rare conifer, Pseudotsuga japonica, endemic to Japan. Conserv Genet 19, 1243–1255 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10592-018-1092-5

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