Abstract Detail

Population Genetics/Genomics

García, Marta Alonso [1], Grewe, Felix [2], Villarreal A., Juan Carlos [3], Payette, Serge [3].

Elucidating the evolutionary history of the lichen Cladonia stellaris in Eastern North America.

The lichen woodland (LW) stands as the second largest ecosystem of the North American boreal biome, covering about 2 million km² in Canada. It is extended from the Atlantic coast to the Rocky Mountains and the Yukon. The LW is the main ecosystem north of the closed-crown forest zone, and south of the forest-tundra zone. In the southern region of Quebec (Canada), there is a remnant of lichen woodland in the Parcs des Grands-Jardins (PGJ), around 500 km south of its usual distribution range. The LW in this park originated during the late Holocene (580-1400 yr BP), with wildfire as the principal triggering mechanism of the formation of the LW. Nowadays, it covers ca. 10% of the park´s area (310 km²) and it has been affected by multiple fires in the last 100 years. We studied the population structure of the lichen Cladonia stellaris (Opiz) Pouzar & V?zda, the most emblematic member of the lichen woodland, and presumably reproducing clonally. A total of 80 samples of C. stellaris were collected from 5 sites from PGJ, affected by four fire events (in 1864, 1950, 1991 and 1999), in addition to 50 samples collected throughout the province of Quebec. Approximately 10 mg of lichen thalli were used for DNA extraction and genotype-by-sequencing (GBS) in the Ion Proton platform, using enzymes Pstl/Mspl. The resulting high-throughput sequencing data was used to detect single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) for downstream population genomics analyses. Our predictions are that (i) populations of C. stellaris from PGJ were dispersed from LWs from Northern Quebec and, (ii) genetic diversity is correlated with successional fires stages, being higher at final stages. These data will provide crucial information to understand the patterns of movement and resilience of the LW ecosystems in respect to the perturbations originated by global climate change, such as the fires. (Financial support to M. Alonso was received from the Spanish "Fundación Séneca-Agencia de Ciencia y Tecnología de la Región de Murcia" (Programa Regional de Talento Investigador y su Empleabilidad: 20369/PD/17), from Centre d´etudes nordiques (Université Laval) and for the Science Visiting Scholarships (Field Museum of Chicago).)

1 - Université Laval, Biologie, Institut de Biologie Intégrative et des Systèmes (IBIS), Pavillon C.E. Marchand, Centre d'Études Nordiques, Quebec City, QC, G1V 0A6, Canada
2 - The Field Museum, Science and Education, 1400 South Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, 60605, USA
3 - Université Laval, Biologie, Institut de Biologie Intégrative et des Systèmes (IBIS), Pavillon C.E. Marchand, Quebec City, QC, G1V 0A6, Canadá

Keywords:
Lichen woodland
Population genetics/genomics.

Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Session: POPGEN2, Population Genetics/Genomics II
Location: Tucson H/Starr Pass
Date: Wednesday, July 31st, 2019
Time: 2:00 PM
Number: POPGEN2003
Abstract ID:215
Candidate for Awards:Margaret Menzel Award