Genetic fingerprinting of black poplar trees in the Aras River

Abstract

Black poplar is an economically important tree species that spreads in the Eastern and Central Anatolian regions of Türkiye and is used extensively in wood production. In addition to being used as a model organism for raw material production in breeding programs all over the world, its natural populations and plantations are used extensively, especially in Europe, due to its environmental plasticity and contribution to biodiversity. The habitat of the species is decreasing day by day and the continuity of the species is threatened in parallel with the increase in human activities such as planting fields and establishing hydroelectric power plants on the riverbanks where they naturally spread. In this study, genetic identity was given to individuals in black poplar populations distributed in the Aras River with 16 microsatellite markers. A high level of expected and observed heterozygosity was found in the populations. It turned out that the populations sampled from the sections of the Aras River between Iğdır-Kars and Erzurum-Kars originated from two genetic groups. It has been observed that there is a low rate of genetic differentiation between these two genetic groups due to high gene flow. The genetic data obtained can be used in the development of in-situ/ex-situ conservation programs and breeding programs for black poplar populations distributed in the Aras River.

Keywords

• black poplar
• aras river
• microsatellite
• genetic fingerprint
• gene flow
• kara kavak
• aras nehri
• mikrosatellit
• genetik parmak izi
• gen akışı