Resilience of genetic diversity in forest trees over the Quaternary

Pascal Milesi (), Chedly Kastally, Benjamin Dauphin, Sandra Cervantes, Francesca Bagnoli, Katharina B. Budde, Stephen Cavers, Bruno Fady, Patricia Faivre-Rampant, Santiago C. González-Martínez, Delphine Grivet, Felix Gugerli, Véronique Jorge, Isabelle Lesur Kupin, Dario I. Ojeda, Sanna Olsson, Lars Opgenoorth, Sara Pinosio, Christophe Plomion, Christian Rellstab, Odile Rogier, Simone Scalabrin, Ivan Scotti, Giovanni G. Vendramin, Marjana Westergren, Martin Lascoux () and Tanja Pyhäjärvi ()
Additional contact information
Pascal Milesi: Uppsala University
Chedly Kastally: University of Helsinki
Benjamin Dauphin: Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL
Sandra Cervantes: University of Oulu
Francesca Bagnoli: National Research Council of Italy (IBBR-CNR)
Katharina B. Budde: Georg-August-University Goettingen
Stephen Cavers: UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH)
Bruno Fady: Ecology of Mediterranean Forests
Patricia Faivre-Rampant: University of Paris-Saclay, INRAE, EPGV
Santiago C. González-Martínez: University of Bordeaux, INRAE, BIOGECO
Delphine Grivet: Institute of Forest Sciences (ICIFOR), INIA-CSIC
Felix Gugerli: Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL
Véronique Jorge: BioForA
Isabelle Lesur Kupin: University of Bordeaux, INRAE, BIOGECO
Dario I. Ojeda: Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research (NIBIO)
Sanna Olsson: Institute of Forest Sciences (ICIFOR), INIA-CSIC
Lars Opgenoorth: Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL
Sara Pinosio: National Research Council of Italy (IBBR-CNR)
Christophe Plomion: University of Bordeaux, INRAE, BIOGECO
Christian Rellstab: Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL
Odile Rogier: BioForA
Simone Scalabrin: IGA Technology Services S.r.l.
Ivan Scotti: Ecology of Mediterranean Forests
Giovanni G. Vendramin: National Research Council of Italy (IBBR-CNR)
Marjana Westergren: Slovenian Forestry Institute
Martin Lascoux: Uppsala University
Tanja Pyhäjärvi: University of Helsinki

Nature Communications, 2024, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-13

Abstract: Abstract The effect of past environmental changes on the demography and genetic diversity of natural populations remains a contentious issue and has rarely been investigated across multiple, phylogenetically distant species. Here, we perform comparative population genomic analyses and demographic inferences for seven widely distributed and ecologically contrasting European forest tree species based on concerted sampling of 164 populations across their natural ranges. For all seven species, the effective population size, Ne, increased or remained stable over many glacial cycles and up to 15 million years in the most extreme cases. Surprisingly, the drastic environmental changes associated with the Pleistocene glacial cycles have had little impact on the level of genetic diversity of dominant forest tree species, despite major shifts in their geographic ranges. Based on their trajectories of Ne over time, the seven tree species can be divided into three major groups, highlighting the importance of life history and range size in determining synchronous variation in genetic diversity over time. Altogether, our results indicate that forest trees have been able to retain their evolutionary potential over very long periods of time despite strong environmental changes.

Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-52612-y

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