Current Situation, Global Potential Distribution and Evolution of Six Almond Species in China

Almond resources are widely distributed in Central Asia; its distribution has not been studied in detail. Based on the first-hand data of field investigation, climate variables and chloroplast genome data, climatic characteristics of six almond species in China were analyzed, and the global distribution and evolutionary relationship were predicted. The six almond species are concentrated between 27.99°N and 60.47°N. Different almond species have different climatic characteristics. The climate of the almond species distribution has its characteristics, and the distribution of almond species was consistent with the fatty acid cluster analysis. All the test AUC (area under curve) values of MaxEnt model were larger than 0.92. The seven continents except for Antarctica contain suitable areas for the six almond species, and such areas account for approximately 8.08% of the total area of these six continents. Based on the analysis of chloroplast DNA and the distribution characteristics, the evolutionary relationship of the six almond species was proposed, which indicated that China was not the origin of almond. In this study, the construction of a phylogenetic tree based on the chloroplast genome and the characteristics of geographical distribution were constructed. The six almond species in China may have evolved from “Unknown almond species” through two routes. The MaxEnt model for each almond species provided satisfactory results. The prediction results can provide the important reference for Prunus dulcis cultivation, wild almond species development and protection.