Evidence for phylogeographic structure in Lolium species related to the spread of agriculture in Europe.: A cpDNA study

In order to explain the present distribution area of natural populations of two forage grasses species (Lolium perenne and L. rigidum), we studied genetic variation for maternally inherited chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) in 447 individual plants from 51 natural populations sampled throughout Europe and the Middle East. The detection of polymorphism by restriction analysis of PCR-amplified cpDNA fragments resulted in the identification of 15 haplotypes. Hierarchical analysis of chloroplastic diversity showed a high level of within-population diversity while, for both species, we found that about 40% of the total diversity still remains among populations. The use of previous isozymes data enabled us to estimate the pollen to seed flow ratio: pollen flow appears to be 3.5 times greater than seed flow for L. perenne and 2.2 times higher for L. rigidum. A stepwise weighted genetic distance between pairs of populations was calculated using the haplotypes frequencies of populations. A hierarchical clustering of populations clearly divides the two species, while two main clusters of L. perenne populations show a strong geographical structure. Different scenario are proposed for explaining the distribution area of the two species. Finally, evidence attesting that these geographical structures are related to the spread of agriculture in Europe are presented and discussed.