Abstract
It is known that various poplar species and cultivated poplar hybrids have the potential to interbreed and produce fertile offspring. Conservation strategies for the genetic resources of the endangered Eurasian black poplar (Populus nigra L.) thus rely on a monitoring which enables the identification and verification of the pure species status. At the same time, the risk of hybrid dispersal and introgressive gene flow has to be estimated. In the present study a combination of two molecular markers, one from chloroplast DNA and the other from nuclear DNA, was applied to evaluate a large P. nigra population on the Elbe River. Hybrid clones of P. × canadensis are scattered within this population and also occur as plantations in the surrounding landscape. By means of the DNA markers the taxonomic status of 208 adult trees in the population and 140 young poplars along the riverbank was monitored. From the analysed young poplars, almost 20 percent were found to exhibit at least one of the two P. deltoides or P. × canadensis diagnostic alleles or genotypes, respectively. Possible vegetative spreads of F1 hybrids and precedent mating scenarios are discussed. Most interestingly we found clear evidence for a small number of backcross hybrids where P. × canadensis acted as pollen donor. This case had long been debated and thought to be less probable, so far.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Karl Gebhardt, Alwin Janßen and Hans-Jürgen Arndt from the Northwest German Forest Research Centre in Hannoversch-Münden, Germany, for providing the reference material from the poplar clone collection. S.G. had been working periodically in the laboratory of the Federal Research Centre for Forests (BFW), Department of Genetics, Vienna, Austria. Thanks to Thomas Geburek, Thomas Thalmayr and Wilfried Nebenführ for hosting and training her. We are grateful to Christina Mengel for excellent technical support in the laboratory of the Conservation Biology working group at the Philipps-University of Marburg. G.R. is financially supported by a grant of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (0313285J: Modelling gene flow in poplar in a real landscape).
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Ziegenhagen, B., Gneuss, S., Rathmacher, G. et al. A fast and simple genetic survey reveals the spread of poplar hybrids at a natural Elbe river site. Conserv Genet 9, 373–379 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10592-007-9349-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10592-007-9349-4