COST Action E 52 - vTI - Bund.de

In general, all genetic variability studies revealed a low estimate among stands diversity as well as a low
geographic structure (Leonardi, Menozzi 1996) with a consequential strong diversity component
within population. These findings are consistent with the European stand data and wind-pollinated,
low self-compatibility reproductive biology, characterized by a low level (2 – 4%) of inbreeding
(Rossi, Vendramin, Giannini 1996).
Emiliani et al. (2004) using RAPD and cpDNA PCR-RFLP markers analyzed 30 populations located
in southern Italy. The analysis showed that the south of Italy represents a diversity hotspot with
more than one glacial (micro) refuge nuclei, and that the genetic variability among populations is
substantially higher than that reported in literature.
In a wider geographic context, the distribution of chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) variation was studied
using PCR-RFLP and microsatellite markers in 6 Italian beech populations (Vettori et al. 2004).
The authors confirm the role of southern and central Italy as the hotspots of haplotype diversity
(highest level of total haplotype diversity h = 0.822, high level of genetic differentiation g = 0.855)
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and the highest number of haplotypes. Nevertheless, all haplotypes found along the Apennines
remained trapped in the Italian peninsula.
The phylogeography of beech was extensively analyzed with molecular genetics and paleobotanical
approaches by Magri et al. (2006) suggesting, in accordance with Emiliani et al. (2004) and Vettori
et al. (2004), that beech populations might have survived during the last glacial period at different
locations in the Italian peninsula, with the consequence that no clear large-scale migration trends
can be recognized in southern and central Italy. Furthermore the authors suggest that the presence
of populations displaying high divergence in central-southern Italy may be associated to the fact that
beech populations persisted in these regions since the middle Pleistocene.
Recently, microsatellite loci were used to examine the impact of forest management on genetic
diversity (Buiteveld et al. 200 ). The comparison between two Italian stands – one near to the
‘old-growth’ forest and one with high management-intensity (shelterwood system) – revealed no
significant differences in genetic diversity parameters.
Using an innovative approach on fossil pollen DNA, Paffetti et al. (200 ) demonstrated, in contrast
to current knowledge based on palynological and macrofossil data, that the F. orientalis complex
was already present during the Tyrrhenian period in what is now Venice lagoon (Italy). This finding
represents a new and important insight, considering that nowadays Western Europe is not the natural
area of the Fagus orientalis complex, and that the presence of the complex during the last interglacial
period in Italy has never been hypothesized before.
The individuation of retrotransposable elements in beech (Emiliani, Paffetti, Giannini 2009)
offers an interesting insight into F. sylvatica genome and the possibility for the development of new
markers for genetic diversity screening and for evolution studies.
A genetic linkage map of European beech was constructed according to a “two-way pseudo-testcross”
mapping strategy, using a total of 312 RAPD, AFLP and SSR markers scored in 143 individuals from
a F full-sib family (Scalfi et al. 2004). In the same pedigree, the association with genetic markers of
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several quantitative traits: leaf area, leaf number and shape in two different years, specific leaf area,
leaf carbon-isotope discrimination and tree height were also investigated obtaining QTLs associated
with leaf traits explaining a variation between 15% and 35%.
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