Genetic structure in patchy populations of a candidate foundation plant: a case study of Leymus chinensis using genetic and clonal diversity

PREMISE: The distribution of genetic diversity on the landscape has critical ecological and evolutionary implications. This may be especially the case on a local scale for foundation plant species since they create and define ecological communities, contributing disproportionately to ecosystem function.
METHODS: We examined the distribution of genetic diversity and clones, which we defined first as unique multilocus genotypes (MLG), and then by grouping similar MLGs into multilocus lineages (MLL). We used 186 markers from inter-simple sequence repeats (ISSR) across 358 ramets from 13 patches of the foundation grass Leymus chinensis. We examined the relationship between genetic and clonal diversities, their variation with patch-size, and the effect of the number of markers used to evaluate genetic diversity and structure in this species.
RESULTS: Every ramet had a unique MLG. Almost all patches consisted of individuals belonging to a single MLL. We confirmed this with a clustering algori...