Abstract
Climatic fluctuations and aridification have combined with the environmental heterogeneity between north and south Xinjiang to shape the spatial genetic structure and demographic history of desert species in Xinjiang, China. Lycium ruthenicum offers a unique opportunity for surveying the spatial genetic structure, evolutionary history, and effect of environmental heterogeneity on local adaption and population divergence. Three cpDNA loci (psbA–trnH, psbK–psbI, and trnV) were sequenced for 238 individuals from 21 populations across the species range in Xinjiang. Median-joining networks, principal coordinate analyses (PCoA), BEAST analysis, species distribution models (SDMs), and least-cost path (LCP) analysis were integrated to investigate the spatial genetic patterns and demographic history of the species. The 21 haplotypes identified formed two clusters, corresponding to northern and southern populations according to the PCoA and median-joining network. BEAST analysis indicated the genetic divergence between the northern and southern populations began in the middle to late Pleistocene. Increased aridity may have triggered population differentiation and fragmentation; the expansions of the Gurbantunggut and Taklamakan Deserts and uplift of the Tianshan Mountains likely further isolated northern from southern populations. High levels of diversity and unique haplotypes were identified in the populations from the north slope of the Tianshan Mountains and the northwestern and southwestern Tarim Basin, which likely served as glacial refugia for the northern and southern groups, respectively. The distribution of genetic variation, SDMs, and LCP analysis indicate L. ruthenicum expanded from refugia along the edge of the Gurbantunggut and Taklamakan Deserts at the end of the last glacial maximum.
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Acknowledgments
We are very appreciative of Dan Zhang from our Key Laboratory of Ecological Corps for Oasis City and Mountain Basin System in College of Life Sciences for her assistance and support in sample collection, preliminary experiments and help in the revision of the current study. We are very grateful for the comments and suggestions of the anonymous referees, which led to valuable improvements to the text.
Data archiving statement
All haplotype sequences gathered in this study have been deposited in GenBank (psbA-trnH, MT349303–MT349323; psbK-psbI, MT349324–MT349344; trnV, MT349345–MT349386). The accession numbers of the outgroup sequences for psbA-trnH, psbK-psbI, and trnV are MH197407.1, EU749866.1, and MT701614, respectively. The following information was supplied regarding data availability: The raw data is available as a Supplemental File.
Funding
This work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant numbers 41261011 and 41561007).
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S.M and Y.N designed the research; C.W collected the samples and performed the laboratory work; F.S and B.W performed the analysis; S.M and C.W wrote the draft of the manuscript; all authors reviewed and contributed to the manuscript.
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Appropriate permissions for collecting and using Lycium ruthenicum samples from Xinjiang were obtained from responsible authorities of the province of Xinjiang, they are available upon request to the corresponding author.
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Wang, C., Ma, S., Sun, F. et al. Spatial genetic patterns of the medicinal and edible shrub Lycium ruthenicum (Solanaceae) in arid Xinjiang, China. Tree Genetics & Genomes 17, 22 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11295-020-01488-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11295-020-01488-2