Genetic structure, diversity and differentiation of Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.) in natural populations of Latvia

Abstract The genetic structure of five populations of Norway spruce ( Picea abies (L.) Karst.) in Latvia was investigated by starch gel electrophoresis. On the basis of the analysis of 16 gene-enzyme systems encoding 26 allozyme loci, levels of gene diversity and differentiation among the populations were determined. On average, more than 70% of the loci per population were polymorphic, the number of alleles per locus was 2.262, and the expected and observed heterozygosities were 0.186 and 0.185, respectively. Analysis of F -statistics showed an average 0.9% excess of heterozygotes per population, relative to the Hardy-Weinberg ratio. Only 1.7–1.8% of the observed genetic variation appeared to be interpopulation variance, the remainder was due to differences among individuals within populations. Estimates of genetic distance among populations ranged from 0.003 to 0.012. The data obtained ascertain that there is a very low differentiation and a close genetic relationship in the Latvian Norway spruce populations.