Patterns of post-glacial colonization by western redcedar (Thuja plicata, Cupressaceae) as revealed by microsatellite markers

As knowledge of historical migration in response to climatic change allows insight into the dynamic nature of range shifts, patterns of post-glacial colonization were evaluated for the western redcedar (Thuja plicata Donn ex D. Don). We sampled and genotyped 620 trees from 23 populations across its range, including disjunct coastal and interior mesic sites. Genetic variation at eight microsatellite loci (mean alleles/locus = 10.30, mean expected heterozygosity = 0.755) was much higher than previous studies involving other markers, and inbreeding coefficients were predominantly positive (mean = 0.110). The two southernmost populations showed greatest genetic distances, while remaining populations clustered into three distinct geographic groups, comprising northern-coastal, central, and southern-interior populations, respectively. Genetic diversity decreased with latitude, while genetic and geographic distances were strongly correlated (r = 0.788). Our findings are consistent with independent routes of relatively recent colonization from one major refugium, located south of the glacial maximum, rather than ancient vicariant events. Regional bottlenecks, detected in the south of the range, may have resulted from local extinctions as the range of western redcedar advanced northward. Combined with inbreeding and the evolution of inbreeding tolerance, this may have promoted homozygosity for most classes of genetic markers as observed in other studies of this species.