Genetic diversity in managed subpopulations of Norway spruce [Picea abies (L.) Karst.]

Uniparentally inherited chloroplast simple sequence repeats (cpSSRs), mitochondrial markers (mt), as well as biparentally inherited nuclear simple sequence repeats (SSRs) were used to analyse genetic diversity in different subpopulations of Norway spruce in Austria. For that purpose Norway spruce individuals of different age classes, old (70–100 years) versus young (6–10 years) trees, were fingerprinted to elucidate the genetic effects caused by human management. Three populations from different elevations were selected in a restricted area. Four hundred and fifty individuals, 50 old and 100 young trees from each population, were analysed for this study.Seven paternally inherited cpSSRs revealed no variation within and among populations. In contrast, analysis of three maternal mitochondrial markers showed variation in one locus in individuals originating from the high elevation sample set. Analysis of five polymorphic nuclear SSR loci revealed 135 different alleles. Nuclear SSRs results showed that there is generally more genetic variation and heterozygosity within populations than among populations. Populations from high elevation exhibit more genetic variation than samples from middle and low elevations.