[Seminar] Genetic Demography of Dalmatian sage (Salvia officinalis L.): A Journey to the Past

Plants for Life 2017 - Invited Speakers

Title: Genetic Demography of Dalmatian sage (Salvia officinalis L.): A Journey to the Past

Speaker: Zlatko Šatović

Affiliation: Centre of Excellence for Biodiversity and Molecular Plant Breeding, Zagreb, Croatia

Host: Carlota Vaz Patto

With the aim to exploit existing genetic diversity of a wild species to be introduced into agricultural production as well as in future breeding programmes it is crucial to gain knowledge on how such diversity arises and how it is structured. Molecular markers can be used not only to give us an insight into current population diversity and structure but also to reveal information about the past history of a species. The evolutionary history of a species can be inferred using Approximate Bayesian Computation (ABC) by testing alternative historic scenarios of divergence and admixture. Furthermore, with recent advances in Ecological Niche Modelling (ENM) techniques it become possible to estimate the relationship between species records at collecting sites and the environmental characteristics of those sites in order to predict the suitability of sites for occupation or persistence of a species. Using ENM it is possible not only to inspect current distribution of a species but also to model potential species distribution during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) in order to identify putative glacial refugia of a species. To embark on a journey into the past, we analysed 30 populations of Dalmatian sage across the Balkan Peninsula using microsatellite markers. The results of ENM and ABC suggested two plausible evolutionary trajectories: 1) the species survived in the glacial refugium in southern Adriatic coastal region with subsequent colonization events towards northern, eastern and southern Balkan Peninsula; 2) species survived in several refugia exhibiting concurrent divergence into three genetic groups.