title: Phylogeography of Japanese horse chestnut (Aesculus turbinata) in the Japanese Archipelago based on chloroplast DNA haplotypes.
abstract: Japanese horse chestnut (Aesculus turbinata: Hippocastanaceae) is one of the typical woody plants that grow in temperate riparian forests in the Japanese Archipelago. To analyze the phylogeography of this plant in the Japanese Archipelago, we determined cpDNA haplotypes for 337 samples from 55 populations covering the entire distribution range. Based on 1,313 bp of two spacers, we determined ten haplotypes that are distinguished from adjacent haplotypes by one or two steps. Most of the populations had a single haplotype, suggesting low diversity. Spatial analysis of molecular variance suggested three obvious phylogeographic structures in western Japan, where Japanese horse chestnut is scattered and isolated in mountainous areas. Conversely, no clear phylogeographic structure was observed from the northern to the southern limit of this species, including eastern Japan, where this plant is more common. Rare and private haplotypes were also found in southwestern Japan, where Japanese horse chestnuts are distributed sparsely. These findings imply that western Japan might have maintained a relatively large habitat for A. turbinata during the Quaternary climatic oscillations, while northerly regions could not.
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies, Kyoto University, Yoshida Nihonmatsu-cho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan.
authors.forename: Kanako
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sugahara
authors.forename: Yuko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kaneko
authors.forename: Satoshi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ito
authors.forename: Keisuke
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yamanaka
authors.forename: Hitoshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sakio
authors.forename: Kazuhiko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hoshizaki
authors.forename: Wajiro
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Suzuki
authors.forename: Norikazu
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Yamanaka
authors.forename: Hiroaki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Setoguchi
mesh_terms: D031319:Aesculus / Q000235:genetics*; D001483:Base Sequence; D018742:DNA, Chloroplast / Q000235:genetics*; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005843:Geography; D006239:Haplotypes / Q000235:genetics*; D007564:Japan; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009711:Nucleotides / Q000235:genetics; D058974:Phylogeography
chemical_list: D018742:DNA, Chloroplast; D009711:Nucleotides