Inheritance of isozyme variation and heterozygosity in Pinus ponderosa

Techniques are presented to detect 23 isozyme loci in the long-lived perennial plant, ponderosa pine. Meiotically derived megagametophyte from seeds is used to examine directly the segregation of allelic variants. Approximately seven seeds were initially examined for 12 enzymes from each of 47 trees from ten stands throughout the northern Rocky Mountain region. Additional seeds were also examined from selected families to confirm the inheritance of observed electrophoretic variants at 13 polymorphic loci and to estimate linkage relationships. Significant nonrandom segregation was consistently detected for three pairs of loci: ADH-1: AAT-2, ADH-1: PGI-1, and LAP-2: 6PG-1. Preliminary estimates of population parameters reveal a relatively high average heterozygosity (H=0.123). This is partitioned into a high amount of genetic variation within local stands, with only approximately 12% of the total heterozygosity resulting from genic differences between stands.Funds for this study were made available under the McIntire-Stennis program of the Forest, Range, and Conservation Experiment Station of the School of Forestry, University of Montana.