Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences logoLink to Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
. 2004 Feb 29;359(1442):197–207. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2003.1390

Impact of Ice Ages on the genetic structure of trees and shrubs.

Martin Lascoux 1, Anna E Palmé 1, Rachid Cheddadi 1, Robert G Latta 1
PMCID: PMC1693322  PMID: 15101576

Abstract

Data on the genetic structure of tree and shrub populations on the continental scale have accumulated dramatically over the past decade. However, our ability to make inferences on the impact of the last ice age still depends crucially on the availability of informative palaeoecological data. This is well illustrated by the results from a recent project, during which new pollen fossil maps were established and the variation in chloroplast DNA was studied in 22 European species of trees and shrubs. Species exhibit very different levels of genetic variation between and within populations, and obviously went through very different histories after Ice Ages. However, when palaeoecological data are non-informative, inferences on past history are difficult to draw from entirely genetic data. On the other hand, as illustrated by a study in ponderosa pine, when we can infer the species' history with some certainty, coalescent simulations can be used and new hypotheses can be tested.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (1.3 MB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Davis M. B., Shaw R. G. Range shifts and adaptive responses to Quaternary climate change. Science. 2001 Apr 27;292(5517):673–679. doi: 10.1126/science.292.5517.673. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Ford Michael J. Applications of selective neutrality tests to molecular ecology. Mol Ecol. 2002 Aug;11(8):1245–1262. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-294X.2002.01536.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Hewitt G. The genetic legacy of the Quaternary ice ages. Nature. 2000 Jun 22;405(6789):907–913. doi: 10.1038/35016000. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Hudson Richard R., Turelli Michael. Stochasticity overrules the "three-times rule": genetic drift, genetic draft, and coalescence times for nuclear loci versus mitochondrial DNA. Evolution. 2003 Jan;57(1):182–190. doi: 10.1111/j.0014-3820.2003.tb00229.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Johansen A. D., Latta R. G. Mitochondrial haplotype distribution, seed dispersal and patterns of postglacial expansion of ponderosa pine. Mol Ecol. 2003 Jan;12(1):293–298. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-294x.2003.01723.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Knowles L. Lacey, Maddison Wayne P. Statistical phylogeography. Mol Ecol. 2002 Dec;11(12):2623–2635. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-294x.2002.01637.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Palmé A. E., Semerikov V., Lascoux M. Absence of geographical structure of chloroplast DNA variation in sallow, Salix caprea L. Heredity (Edinb) 2003 Nov;91(5):465–474. doi: 10.1038/sj.hdy.6800307. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Palmé A. E., Su Q., Rautenberg A., Manni F., Lascoux M. Postglacial recolonization and cpDNA variation of silver birch, Betula pendula. Mol Ecol. 2003 Jan;12(1):201–212. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-294x.2003.01724.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Palumbi S. R., Cipriano F., Hare M. P. Predicting nuclear gene coalescence from mitochondrial data: the three-times rule. Evolution. 2001 May;55(5):859–868. doi: 10.1554/0014-3820(2001)055[0859:pngcfm]2.0.co;2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Peltier W. R. Ice age paleotopography. Science. 1994 Jul 8;265(5169):195–201. doi: 10.1126/science.265.5169.195. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Petit Rémy J., Aguinagalde Itziar, de Beaulieu Jacques-Louis, Bittkau Christiane, Brewer Simon, Cheddadi Rachid, Ennos Richard, Fineschi Silvia, Grivet Delphine, Lascoux Martin. Glacial refugia: hotspots but not melting pots of genetic diversity. Science. 2003 Jun 6;300(5625):1563–1565. doi: 10.1126/science.1083264. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Ptak Susan E., Przeworski Molly. Evidence for population growth in humans is confounded by fine-scale population structure. Trends Genet. 2002 Nov;18(11):559–563. doi: 10.1016/s0168-9525(02)02781-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Rendell S., Ennos R. A. Chloroplast DNA diversity in Calluna vulgaris (heather) populations in Europe. Mol Ecol. 2002 Jan;11(1):69–78. doi: 10.1046/j.0962-1083.2001.01413.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Richardson B. A., Brunsfeld S. J., Klopfenstein N. B. DNA from bird-dispersed seed and wind-disseminated pollen provides insights into postglacial colonization and population genetic structure of whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis). Mol Ecol. 2002 Feb;11(2):215–227. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-294x.2002.01435.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Robertson A. Gene frequency distributions as a test of selective neutrality. Genetics. 1975 Dec;81(4):775–785. doi: 10.1093/genetics/81.4.775. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Taberlet Pierre, Cheddadi Rachid. Ecology. Quaternary refugia and persistence of biodiversity. Science. 2002 Sep 20;297(5589):2009–2010. doi: 10.1126/science.297.5589.2009. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Tzedakis P. C., Lawson I. T., Frogley M. R., Hewitt G. M., Preece R. C. Buffered tree population changes in a quaternary refugium: evolutionary implications. Science. 2002 Sep 20;297(5589):2044–2047. doi: 10.1126/science.1073083. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences are provided here courtesy of The Royal Society

RESOURCES