The conservation and sustainable use of forest genetic resources (FGR) in the face of the threat posed by climate change has become a challenging task for scientists and foresters. Genetic variability and diversity of FGR and forest reproductive material (FRM) will play a key role in forest adaptation under future environmental conditions. The need for protection of FGR has been widely discussed on the pan-European and national scales. However, at the national level, in some countries, the conservation and use of rare and scattered tree species FGR is overlooked or given low priority. Our study focuses on the delineation of provenance regions, selection of seed stands and gene conservation units of wild service tree in southern Germany. A total of 106 natural populations of wild service tree were screened based on demographic and phenotypic criteria. In order to represent the distribution range of wild service tree in southern Germany, 34 populations were selected for genetic analysis with eight variable microsatellite markers in Bavaria (BY) and Baden-Württemberg (BW). Results of AMOVA (analysis of molecular variance) showed that genetic variation is mainly distributed within populations (96%), while only a small amount occurred among them ( F ST = 0.04). The Mantel test indicated isolation by distance, and Bayesian clustering indicated the highest probability of four genetic clusters of wild service tree in southern Germany. Finally, 12 stands out of 34 were proposed as seed stands based on high-quality phenotypes and high genetic diversity (effective no. of alleles Ne ≥ 5.5). Five populations were proposed as gene conservation units, and seven forest stands were included in the list as potential future seed stands. Overall, assessment of genetic diversity should be applied in future to evaluate the level of genetic diversity of all selected seed stands. Our study thus presents a concept for delineation of provenance regions, selection of seed stands and gene conservation units based on demographic–phenotypic parameters and genetic markers.

中文翻译：

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帮助德国南部野生服务树 (Sorbus torminalis (L.) Crantz) 的种源区划定和种子林分和基因保护单位的选择的遗传变异性

面对气候变化带来的威胁，保护和可持续利用森林遗传资源（FGR）已成为科学家和林业工作者的一项艰巨任务。FGR 和森林繁殖材料 (FRM) 的遗传变异性和多样性将在未来环境条件下的森林适应中发挥关键作用。保护森林遗传资源的必要性已在泛欧和国家范围内得到广泛讨论。然而，在国家层面，在一些国家，稀有和分散的树种 FGR 的保护和利用被忽视或不重视。我们的研究重点是德国南部野生服务树种源区的划分、种子林分的选择和基因保护单元。根据人口统计和表型标准，共筛选了 106 个野生服务树的自然种群。为了代表德国南部野生服务树的分布范围，选择了巴伐利亚（BY）和巴登-符腾堡（BW）的8个可变微卫星标记的34个种群进行遗传分析。AMOVA（分子方差分析）结果表明，遗传变异主要分布在种群内（96%），而在种群中仅发生少量（F ST = 0.04）。Mantel 检验表明按距离隔离，贝叶斯聚类表明德国南部野生服务树的四个遗传簇的概率最高。最后，基于高质量表型和高遗传多样性（有效等位基因 Ne ≥ 5.5）提出了 34 个中的 12 个作为种子林。五个种群被提议作为基因保护单位，七个林分被列入名单作为潜在的未来种子林分。总体而言，未来应应用遗传多样性评估来评估所有选定种子林分的遗传多样性水平。因此，我们的研究提出了一种基于人口表型参数和遗传标记来划分来源区域、选择种子林分和基因保护单位的概念。