Genetic variation in Chinese pine (Pinus tabulaeformis), a woody species endemic to China.

Random amplified polymorphic DNA markers were used to investigate genetic variation of the Chinese pine (Pinus tabulaeformis Carr.), a species endemic to China and the most widely distributed pine species in North China. The results revealed that P. tabulaeformis populations had a relatively high level of genetic diversity (H(t) = 0.3268), distributed mainly within (79.2%) rather than among (20.8%) populations. The populations of Lingkong Mountain and Wuling Mountain had a higher level of diversity (0.2687) than the other four populations (0.2537). No statistically significant relationships were found between genetic diversity and climatic factors by correlation analysis and between genetic distance and geographic distance by the Mantel test. These results suggest that the partitioning of genetic diversity in each population might have been influenced not only by water and temperature conditions but also by other factors such as human activities and the Holocene postglacial history of these populations.