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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Genet.
Sec. Evolutionary and Population Genetics
Volume 16 - 2025 |
doi: 10.3389/fgene.2025.1552024
Negative frequency-dependent selection through variations in seedling fitness due to genetic differentiation of parents' pair in a tropical rainforest tree, Rubroshorea curtisii (Dipterocarpaceae)
Provisionally accepted
Naoki Tani 1,2*
Chin Hong Ng 3
Soon Leong Lee 3
Chai Ting Lee 3 Norwati Muhammad 3 Toshiaki Kondo 1
Yoshihiko Tsumura 2
Saori Sugiyama 2 Kaoru Niiyama 4 Azizi Ripin 5 Abdul Rahman Kassim 3 Samsudin Musa 3- 1 Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS), Tsukuba, Japan
- 2 University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan
- 3 Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM), Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
- 4 Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan
- 5 Advance Forest Resources, Rawan, Malaysia
To assess genetic factors that affect the fitness of seedlings of Rubroshorea curtisii, a dominant canopy tree species in hill dipterocarp forests, the inter-and intra-population genetic structure of individuals with reproductive stage and, survival rate and seedling growth performance in relation to the bi-parental genetic relationship were studied. A Bayesian based clustering analysis revealed that three genetically distinct clusters were observed in almost all populations throughout the distributional range of the species in Malay Peninsula and provided the optimum explanation for the genetic structure of 182 mature individuals in two permanent plots in a hill dipterocarp forest. The two clusters showed larger genetic differentiation from the ancestral admixture population, but the other one was not differentiated. A total of 460 seedlings derived from six mother trees in the plot were raised in a nursery, and their pollen donors were identified using genetic marker based paternity assignment. Seed weight, bi-parental genetic relatedness, and bi-parental genetic heterogeneity based on the clustering analysis were used to analyze their effects on seedling fitness. The bi-parental larger genetic heterogeneity was associated with a significantly higher probability of seedling survivorship, and likewise, higher performance of vertical growth of the seedlings; but the seed weight and genetic relatedness did not significantly affect those. This evidence suggests that fitter seedlings derived from mating between parents with different genetic clusters contribute to maintaining genetic diversity through negative frequency-dependent selection and may have an important role in adaptation in the tropical forest plant community.
Keywords: Dipterocarp, syngameon, Genetic structure, fitness, frequency-dependent selection, tropical rainforest
Received: 27 Dec 2024; Accepted: 17 Jan 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Tani, Ng, Lee, Lee, Muhammad, Kondo, Tsumura, Sugiyama, Niiyama, Ripin, Kassim and Musa. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Naoki Tani, Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS), Tsukuba, Japan
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