Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Apr 26;23(1):220.
doi: 10.1186/s12870-023-04231-w.

Genetic structure of an endangered species Ormosia henryi in southern China, and implications for conservation

Chengchuan Zhou #  1 , Shiqi Xia #  1 , Qiang Wen  1 , Ying Song  1 , Quanquan Jia  1 , Tian Wang  1 , Liting Liu  2 , Tianlin Ouyang  3
Affiliations

Genetic structure of an endangered species Ormosia henryi in southern China, and implications for conservation

Chengchuan Zhou et al. BMC Plant Biol. .

Abstract

Background: The evergreen broadleaved forest (EBLF) is an iconic vegetation type of East Asia, and it contributes fundamentally to biodiversity-based ecosystem functioning and services. However, the native habitat of EBLFs keeps on decreasing due to anthropogenic activities. Ormosia henryi is a valuable rare woody species in EBLFs that is particularly sensitive to habitat loss. In this study, ten natural populations of O. henryi in southern China were sampled, and then genotyping by sequencing (GBS) was applied to elucidate the standing genetic variation and population structure of this endangered species.

Results: In ten O. henryi populations, 64,158 high-quality SNPs were generated by GBS. Based on these markers, a relatively low level of genetic diversity was found with the expected heterozygosity (He) ranging from 0.2371 to 0.2901. Pairwise FST between populations varied from 0.0213 to 0.1652, indicating a moderate level of genetic differentiation. However, contemporary gene flow between populations were rare. Assignment test and principal component analysis (PCA) both supported that O. henryi populations in southern China could be divided into four genetic groups, and prominent genetic admixture was found in those populations located in southern Jiangxi Province. Mantel tests and multiple matrix regression with randomization (MMRR) analyses suggested that isolation by distance (IBD) could be the possible reason for describing the current population genetic structure. In addition, the effective population size (Ne) of O. henryi was extremely small, and showed a continuous declining trend since the Last Glacial Period.

Conclusions: Our results indicate that the endangered status of O. henryi is seriously underestimated. Artificial conservation measures should be applied as soon as possible to prevent O. henryi from the fate of extinction. Further studies are needed to elucidate the mechanism that leading to the continuous loss of genetic diversity in O. henryi and help to develop a better conservation strategy.

Keywords: Conservation; Genetic diversity; Genotyping by sequencing; Ormosia henryi; Population structure.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
ADMIXTURE results of the 129 O. henryi individuals based on the dataset of putative neutral SNPs with K = 2, K = 3 and K = 4
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Clustering of O. henryi populations based on principal component analysis (PCA). Each point represents an individual colored according to the sampling site
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
The neighbor-joining (NJ) tree of all the 129 O. henryi individuals based on the dataset of putative neutral SNPs. The red dot indicates the branch support value of bootstraps > 50%
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
The significant correlation between genetic distance and geographic distance among 10 O. henryi populations found by Mantel test
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Inference of demographic history of the entire O. henryi population using Stairway plot 2. The grey solid line represents the median effective population size (Ne) and the grey dash lines represent the 2.5 and 97.5 percentiles of Ne, respectively. The area between the two black dashed lines represents the Last Glacial Period
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
Sampling locations of 10 O. henryi populations investigated in southern China
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Song YC, Da LJ. Evergreen broad-leaved forest of East Asia. In: Box EO, editor. Vegetation structure and function at multiple spatial, temporal and conceptual scales. Switzerland: Springer International; 2016. pp. 101–128.
    1. Tang CQ. Evergreen broad-leaved forests. In: Tang CQ, editor. The subtropical vegetation of southwestern China: plant distribution, diversity and ecology. Dordrecht: Springer; 2015. pp. 49–112.
    1. Mi XC, Feng G, Hu YB, Zhang J, Chen L, Corlett RT, et al. The global significance of biodiversity science in China: an overview. Natl Sci Rev. 2021;8(7):nwab032. doi: 10.1093/nsr/nwab032. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Dong M, Zang RG. Research in population and conservation biology of rare and endangered plant species. Beijing: Science Press; 2022.
    1. Dai EF, Wu Z, Ge Q, Xi W, Wang X. Predicting the responses of forest distribution and aboveground biomass to climate change under RCP scenarios in southern China. Glob Chang Biol. 2016;22(11):3642–3661. doi: 10.1111/gcb.13307. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources