Population genetics of Daphnimorpha species

A climate relict is of particular importance in evolutionary biology because of its long-term survival in the face of climatic oscillations. However, because their current distributions are usually restricted and fragmented, many climatic relicts have extinction risks. Daphnimorpha (Thymelaeaceae) is a Japanese endemic genus that comprises two species (D. capitellata and D. kudoi) showing a disjunct distribution in the southern part of Japan. These two species are endemic to a single mountain range. In this study, we conducted population genetic analyses using genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism obtained from multiplexed inter-simple sequence repeat genotyping by sequencing to reveal the phylogeographic history and obtain conservation implications for the two species. The results showed these two species may have been isolated since the Tertiary period, indicating that they are climate relicts. In addition, D. kudoi showed clear genetic differentiation between two mountains (Mt. ...