Landguth Erin L, Holden Zachary A, Mahalovich Mary F, Cushman Samuel A
Division of Biological Sciences, University of Montana Missoula, MT, USA.
U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service Missoula, MT, USA.
Front Genet. 2017 Feb 10;8:9. doi: 10.3389/fgene.2017.00009. eCollection 2017.
Recent population declines to the high elevation western North America foundation species whitebark pine, have been driven by the synergistic effects of the invasive blister rust pathogen, mountain pine beetle (MPB), fire exclusion, and climate change. This has led to consideration for listing whitebark pine (WBP) as a threatened or endangered species under the Endangered Species Act, which has intensified interest in developing management strategies for maintaining and restoring the species. An important, but poorly studied, aspect of WBP restoration is the spatial variation in adaptive genetic variation and the potential of blister rust resistant strains to maintain viable populations in the future. Here, we present a simulation modeling framework to improve understanding of the long-term genetic consequences of the blister rust pathogen, the evolution of rust resistance, and scenarios of planting rust resistant genotypes of whitebark pine. We combine climate niche modeling and eco-evolutionary landscape genetics modeling to evaluate the effects of different scenarios of planting rust-resistant genotypes and impacts of wind field direction on patterns of gene flow. Planting scenarios showed different levels for local extirpation of WBP and increased population-wide blister rust resistance, suggesting that the spatial arrangement and choice of planting locations can greatly affect survival rates of whitebark pine. This study presents a preliminary, but potentially important, framework for facilitating the conservation of whitebark pine.
北美西部高海拔地区的基础物种白皮松近期种群数量下降，这是由入侵性疱锈病菌、山松甲虫（MPB）、防火以及气候变化的协同作用导致的。这使得人们考虑根据《濒危物种法》将白皮松列为受威胁或濒危物种，这也增强了人们对制定维持和恢复该物种的管理策略的兴趣。白皮松恢复过程中一个重要但研究较少的方面是适应性遗传变异的空间差异以及抗疱锈病菌株在未来维持可存活种群的潜力。在此，我们提出一个模拟建模框架，以增进对疱锈病菌的长期遗传后果、锈病抗性的进化以及白皮松抗锈病基因型种植方案的理解。我们结合气候生态位建模和生态进化景观遗传学建模，来评估不同抗锈病基因型种植方案的效果以及风场方向对基因流动模式的影响。种植方案显示出白皮松在局部灭绝和全种群疱锈病抗性增加方面的不同水平，这表明种植地点的空间布局和选择会极大地影响白皮松的存活率。本研究为促进白皮松的保护提供了一个初步但可能很重要的框架。
