Population genetic structure of Platanus orientalis L. in Bulgaria

This paper reports the results of a genetic survey on population structure of Platanus orientalis L. in Bulgaria. Nine populations from southern Bulgaria were investigated by using isozyme gene markers. Nine of the enzyme systems were polymorphic. The populations revealed minor polymorphism, which indicates that the predominant allele was the same for all populations and its frequencies were higher than 0.5. The average number of alleles varied from 2.2 to 2.3, and the effective number of alleles ranged from 1.294 to 1.406. The percent of polymorphic loci ranged from 53.8% to 76.9%. Heterozygosity in the populations (average: 0.242; range: 0.229-0.289) was higher than the mean values reported for broad-leaved species (0.183). The expected and observed heterozygosities had similar values. The results showed that genetic diversity among populations measured by F(ST) (0.077) and genetic distances (mean 0.029) was within the range of the values for Angiosperm tree species. The information could be used for designing proper gene conservation strategies.