Genetic diversity of Stipa grandis P Smirn populations across the species' range in the Inner Mongolia Plateau of China

In order to investigate the genetic diversity of dominant species under the background of climate change and grassland utilization in the Inner Mongolia Plateau of China we sampled seven Stipa grand's populations along an increasing aridity gradient in the present study The Nei s gene diversity of populations (He) was estimated to be 0 15 and the percentage of polymorphic loci (PPL) was 49 28% The genetic differentiation among populations (Phi(ST)) was 0 2431 There was a significant relationship between genetic distance and geographic distance among the S grandis populations by Mantel s test The gent tic diversity was significantly correlated with longitude and annual mean precipitation which suggested that a combination of climatic factors affected the genetic diversity The populations in the marginal habitat should be paid more attention because of their low genetic diversity and its significance for conservation of the whole species (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved