Genetic variation of acorn production stands in quercus acutissima and Q. variabilis

Quercus acutissima and Q. variabilis from nine and six acorn production areas were investigated by starch-gel electrophoresis. Genetic variation was quanfied with respect to 7 loci from 7 enzyme systems. The observed average heterozygosities were 20.5% for Q. acutissima and 12.6% for Q. variabilis and the expected heterozygosities were 22.2% for Q. acutissima and 14.6% for Q. variabilis (conditional heterozygosities of 65.6% and 72.9% respectively). The mean numbers of alleles were 2.1 for both Q. acutissima and Q. variabilis and of genotypes were 2.7 for Q. acutissima and 2.5% for Q. variabilis. The percentage of polymorphic loci(0.95 level) was 57.1% for Q. acutissima and 54.8% for Q. variabilis(for 0.99 level, 79.3% and 71.4% respectively). The genetic diversities(the effective number of alleles per locus) were 1.30 for Q. acutissima and 1.17 for Q. variabilis. The populations of Q. acutissima retained more genetic variation than those of Q. variabilis and population Hwasoon in both oak species showed the highest level of genetic diversity. Only a small amount(5% for Q. acutissima and 2.8% for Q. variablis respectively) of the observed genetic variation appeared to be interpopulational. In Q. acutissima, the populations close geography showed the tendency of clustering into the same group. Finally, implications of this study for the conservation of genetic diversity in acorn production areas of Q. acutissima and Q. variabilis were discussed.