Molecular and phenotypic characterization ofQuercus suberL. andPinus uncinataR. populations in the Mediterranean basin

The Mediterranean Basin is an hotspot for bio-geographical and evolutionary studies, showing an exceptional level of biodiversity.The main aim of this research is to explore the genetic diversity in two different Mediterranean forest species:Quercus suberL. andPinus uncinataR.In Sardinia the cork oak is extremely abundant throughout the island, extending from the lowlands up to the average mountain areas.The chloroplast and nuclear microsatellite markers were used to evaluate theQ. suberpopulation genetic structure across the Mediterranean origins. Phenotipic assessment is also evalueted.For cpSSRQ. suberseems to be, as a general trend, characterized by an high level of genetic diversity (FST: 0.764) among populations and showed a clear geographical pattern.Despite, the low nuclear FSTvalue (0.088) point out a limited differentiation among populations, showing that the 91.24% of the total variation is observed within populations. No geographical patterns were revealed by nuSSR.No association between cpSSR and nuSSR has been detected. In fact theQ. suberdiversity investigated using chloroplast SSR showed different scenario than nuclear SSR. InPinus uncinatapopulations the 29 nuclear candidate genes analyzed had a level of genetic diversity (Hd= 0.61) lower than those observed in others pines.Genetic variation in quantitative traits has been shown inP. uncinata. This suggests that some genes may be under differential selection among populations.