Geographical pattern of haplotypic variation in Austrian native stands of Picea abies.

In the present study we analysed the mitochondrial intraspecific variation in natural populations of Norway spruce. We used the second intron of the nad1 gene, which contains two polymorphic short tandem repeats. Due to the maternal inheritance of mitochondrial DNA in Norway spruce, the spatial distribution of haplotype DNA allows insights into seed dispersal and artificial seed transfer. A total of 504 trees distributed all over Austria were genotyped, and 9 different haplotypes could be found. A geographical map of the haplotype variation pattern of Picea abies is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]