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Genetic variation for needle traits in Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.)

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Abstract

The remnants of the Caledonian Native Pinewood are distributed across a relatively narrow geographic area in the Scottish Highlands yet inhabit a steep environmental gradient in terms of rainfall, temperature and altitude. Previous work based on common garden trials has demonstrated that native pine populations (Pinus sylvestris (L.)) exhibit differentiation in terms of growth, phenology and frost resistance. However, despite their important role in plant fitness, no such information is available on leaf traits, which have shown both plastic and adaptive genetic responses to environmental variation in other species. We analysed a subset of 11 needle characters in 192 saplings grown in a population-progeny common garden trial based on seedlots from eight native pinewoods. Narrow-sense heritability (h 2) was estimated for each trait and found to be particularly high (1.30 ± 0.33) for resin canal density. The majority of the phenotypic variation found was within populations, although interpopulation differentiation was detected for needle length (ΔAICc = 2.55). Resin canal density was positively correlated with longitude (β = 0.45, ΔAICc = 4.23), whereas stomatal row density was negatively correlated (β =−0.12, ΔAICc = 2.55). These trends may reflect adaptation for differences in moisture availability and altitude between eastern and western populations in Scotland.

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Acknowledgments

KD was funded by a Natural Environment Research Council/Collaborative Awards in Science and Engineering PhD studentship in conjunction with Forest Research and supported by the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology where experimental work was conducted. Establishment of the trial was supported by NERC grant NE/H003959/1. The authors would also like to thank Glen Iason, Dave Sim, Joan Beaton and Ben Moore (Macaulay Institute) for making the seed collections, Annika Perry (CEH) for assistance in the maintenance of the trial, the UK Met Office for use of their meteorological data and the anonymous reviewers for their valuable input to the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Evolutionary Biology, School of Biological Sciences, Ashworth Laboratories, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH9 3JT, Scotland

    Kevin Donnelly & Richard A. Ennos

  2. NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Bush Estate, Penicuik, Midlothian, Edinburgh, EH26 0QB, Scotland

    Kevin Donnelly & Stephen Cavers

  3. Forest Research, Northern Research Station, Roslin, Midlothian, EH25 9SY, Scotland

    Joan E. Cottrell

Authors
  1. Kevin Donnelly
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  2. Stephen Cavers
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  3. Joan E. Cottrell
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  4. Richard A. Ennos
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Correspondence to Kevin Donnelly.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Data archiving statement

The needle morphological data will be deposited in the Environmental Information Data Centre (EIDC) upon acceptance.

Additional information

Communicated by S. C. González-Martínez

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Donnelly, K., Cavers, S., Cottrell, J.E. et al. Genetic variation for needle traits in Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.). Tree Genetics & Genomes 12, 40 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11295-016-1000-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11295-016-1000-4

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