Bi-Cai Guan

The maximum entropy (MaxEnt) model for predicting the potential suitable habitat of species has been commonly employed in many ecological and biological applications by using presence-only occurrence records along with associated environmental factors. Parnassia wightiana, a perennial herb, is a cold-adapted plant distributed across three diversity hotspots in China, including the Hengduan Range, Central China and the Lingnan region. The MaxEnt model was used to simulate the historic, current and future distribution trends of P. wightiana, as well as to analyse its distribution pattern in each historical period and explore the causes of species distribution changes. The results of our analysis indicated that annual precipitation, annual temperature range and mean temperature of the warmest quarter were the key bioclimatic variables affecting the distribution of P. wightiana. Most temperate species retracted into smaller refugial areas during glacial periods and experienced range expansion during interglacial periods. Possible refugia of the species were inferred to be located in the Hengduan Range and Qinling Regions.

Climate change is a great threat to global biodiversity and has resulted in serious ecological consequences. Although the potential effects of climate change on genetic diversity have recently received much research attention, little research has focused on the impacts of climate change on genetic connectivity and the relationship between climate stability and genetic divergence. Here, we combined population connectivity with genetic data to predict the impacts of future climate change on genetic connectivity. Coupled with climatic variables and genetic data, we used POPS software to create spatially explicit simulations and predict the dynamics in genetic clusters in response to climate changes. A generalized additive model was employed to test the correlation between climatic stability and genetic diversification. Our findings indicated that a reduction in species distribution due to severe climate change would lead to a substantial loss of genetic connectivity. More severe future climatic scenarios would likely cause greater loss of variability or more distinct homogenization in genetic variation of species. Relatively low interpolated genetic distances are generally associated with areas of greater losses in climatic suitability from the present to the future. The displacement of climatic genetic clusters will challenge species adaptation to future climate change because of the loss of fundamental evolutionary potential. The persistence capacity of plant species may be weakened in the face of future climate change.

Platanthera minor is widely distributed in East Asia. The complete circular chloroplast genome with a length of 154,430 bp possesses the typical structure, consisting of a large single copy (LSC) of 83,536 bp, a small single copy (SSC) of 17,612 bp, and two inverted repeats (IR) of 26,641 bp. The average GC content of the genome is 36.7%. The circular P. minor chloroplast genome contains 114 genes, including 80 protein-coding genes, four rRNA genes, and 30 tRNA genes. The chloroplast sequence provided a resource for analyzing genetic diversity of the Orchidaceae family.

• Premise of the study: The development of compound microsatellite markers was conducted in Dysosma pleiantha to investigate genetic diversity and population genetic structure of this threatened medicinal plant.• Methods and Results: Using the compound microsatellite marker technique, 14 microsatellite markers that were successfully amplified showed polymorphism when tested on 38 individuals from three populations in eastern China. Overall, the number of alleles per locus ranged from 2 to 14, with an average of 7.71 alleles per locus.• Conclusions: These results indicate that these microsatellite markers are adequate for detecting and characterizing population genetic structure and genetic diversity in Dysosma pleiantha.