Genetic structure and post-glacial expansion of Cornus florida L. (Cornaceae): integrative evidence from phylogeography, population demographic history, and species distribution modeling

Repeated global climatic cooling and warming cycles during the Pleistocene played a major role in the distribution and evolution of the Earth biota. Here, we integrate phylogeography, coalescent-based Bayesian estimation of demographic history, and species distribution modeling (SDM) to understand the genetic patterns and biogeography of the flowering dogwood, Cornus florida subsp. florida L., since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Natural populations of the species are severely threatened by dogwood anthracnose. We genotyped 306 plants from 73 locations of the species across most of its native distribution with three DNA regions from the plastid genome, ndhF-rpl32, rps16 and trnQ-rps16. The genealogy and haplotype network reconstruction revealed two haplotype lineages diverging ∼3.70 million years ago. We detected no clear geographic structuring of genetic variation, although significant local structure appeared to be evident, likely due to a combination of substantial localized seed di...