Consultation > Par auteur > Khan Gulzar

The Qinghai-Tibetan plateau (QTP) uplift had a decisive effect on climatic and ecoenvironmental evolution in East Asia during the Quaternary. In the current study phylogeographic structure and diversification history of Spiraea alpina Pall. across the QTP were investigated for the first time, using the nuclear internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region. Data for ITS1-ITS4 were generated from a total of 284 individuals distributed within 31 natural populations. A clear phylogeographic structure was found for S. alpina. The results showed that this species colonized three different glacial refugia during the Quaternary extensive glaciation and expanded during the Interglacial period. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) showed 74.13% genetic diversity among populations and 25.87% genetic variation within populations with distinct phylogeographic structure (FST ¼ 0.741*). The estimated divergence time revealed that the main lineages of S. alpina diversified during the Quaternary, 1.2-0.6 million years ago. The study concluded that severe climatic oscillations during the Quaternary and uplift of the QTP had a profound effect on the intraspecific divergence of S. alpina.