Isolated history of the coastal plant Lathyrus japonicus (Leguminosae) in Lake Biwa, an ancient freshwater lake

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Lake Biwa is one of the world's few ancient lakes. Formed ∼4 million years ago, the lake harbours many coastal species that commonly inhabit seashores. The beach pea Lathyrus japonicus is a typical coastal species of this freshwater lake, but its inland populations are faced with the threat of extinction. Here, we investigated the phylogeographical and population structures of both inland and coastal populations of L. japonicus. We also elucidated the historical isolation of the Lake Biwa population. METHODOLOGY: In total, 520 individuals from 50 L. japonicus populations were sampled throughout the species distribution in Japan. Chloroplast haplotyping using intergenic spacers psbA–trnH and atpI–atpH was performed to investigate the phylogeographical structure as well as the genetic diversity of L. japonicus. Six nuclear microsatellite markers were also used to analyse the population structure. PRINCIPAL RESULTS: Population structure analyses of chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) and nuclear DNA (nDNA) identified inland and coastal groups. Based on the genetic differentiation, inland populations exhibited a single cpDNA haplotype and significantly lower values of H(S), AR and F(IS) than coastal populations. In addition to the presence of a bottleneck, the lack of gene flow among inland populations was supported by estimates of recent migration rates between subpopulations. CONCLUSIONS: Our data revealed that inland populations have been isolated in Lake Biwa as ‘landlocked’ populations since the predecessor lake was isolated from sea. This was also seen in a previous study of Calystegia soldanella. However, the high genetic differentiation, accompanied by a lack of gene flow among the Lake Biwa populations (according to the BAYESASS(+) analysis), contradicts the results with C. soldanella. We conclude that because of the presence of a bottleneck and low genetic diversity of the inland populations, self-sustaining population persistence may be difficult in the future. Conservation strategies must consider the genetic properties of such isolated populations.