Genetic diversity and structure of natural populations of Picea jezoensis in South Korea

Picea jezoensis (Sieb. et Zucc.) Carriere is one of the major and widespread components of the cold-temperate and boreal forests in Russian Far East, northeast China, Korea, and Japan. However, it is restricted to a highly fragmented range in South Korea with small populations. Mean expected heterozygosity $(H_e)$ based on 22 loci in 11 isozyme systems was 0.077 for four sampled populations that covered the whole distribution range of P. jezoensis in South Korea. This value is within the range reported for conifers, but it is very low compared to that of other spruce species as well as that of P. jezoensis populations in Russian Far East. Most populations had a slight excess of heterozygotes and the Wright's $F_{IS}$ (-0.019) was comparable to that previously reported for other spruce species. In all of the four populations, the Wilcoxon sign-rank test indicated no greater heterozygosity than that expected for populations at mutation-drift equilibrium, suggesting that the populations have not been bottlenecked recently. Despite a fragmented range and isolated populations, population differentiation was not high $(F_{ST}=0.047)$ and the number of migrants per generation was 5.09. Nei's genetic distances were also small $({\bar{D}}=0.005)$ but strongly related to geographic distances between populations, suggesting an Isolation by Distance. The northernmost isolate, Mt. Gyebang population was genetically distinct from the other three populations. Implications for the conservation of genetic variation of P. jezoensis in South Korea were discussed.