Poster: Evolution

Abs # 795: Determining relationships between oak seedlings and adult trees in native forests by DNA fingerprinting

Presenter:	Brown, Michael V, brownmv@wilkes.edu
Authors	Brown, Michael V (A)   Breznak, Valerie  (A)   Carlson, John  (B)   Delva, Fritz  (A)   Eutsler, Eric  (A)   Frederick, Douglas  (A)   Hoch, Jason  (A)   Leptuck, Tiffany  (A)   Marking, Holly  (B)   McEuen, Amy  (A)   Meisel, Richard  (B)   Mikhalkova, Deana  (A)   Smallwood, Peter  (C)   Steele, Michael  (A)   Stillman, Debra  (A)   Terzaghi, Nadia  (D) (A)  Terzaghi, William B (A)
Affiliations:	(A): Wilkes University (B): Pennsylvania State University (C): University of Richmond (D): Bryn Mawr College

Squirrels tend to cache viable acorns of the red oak group much more frequently than those of the white oak group. We hypothesized that seedlings from red oak species should therefore be widely dispersed from their parent trees, while those from white oaks should be clumped near the parent tree. To test this hypothesis we have used DNA fingerprinting. Two sites in Pennsylvania, one in Maryland and one in Indiana have been sampled. We have extracted DNA from 565 seedlings and 83 parent trees at the first PA site, 307 seedlings and 388 parent trees at the second PA site, 344 seedlings and 308 parent trees in MD, and 360 seedlings and 511 parents in IN. We have identified ten primer pairs that amplify polymorphic STRs in Quercus alba, Q. prinus, Q. velutina and Q. rubra. At the first site the red oak group is substantially more genetically diverse than the white group. We have successfully matched more than 25 red oak seedlings to at least one of their parent trees, whereas we have only matched a few white oak seedlings. When this pedigree analysis is completed we will be able to directly measure dispersal distances between adult trees and their seedling offspring, and to measure the genetic structure of these oak forests.