DIVERSITY AND LINKAGE OF ISOZYME LOCI IN EASTERN SPRUCE PICEA-ORIENTALIS (L) LINK

Seeds from two populations of Picea orientalis from the north-western Caucasus were analyzed for electrophoretically detectable variation in 15 enzymes encoded by 24 loci. On the average, more than 57% of the l oci were polymorphic, thc number of alleles per locus being 1.769, the numbers of effective alleles 1.270, expected and observed heterozygos ities being 0.157 and 0.165%, respectively. Analysis of F-statistics s howed a 1.8% excess of heterozygotes per population, relative to Hardy - Weinberg expectation. More than 98% of the observed genetic variati on appeared to bc intrapopulational (F(ST) = 0.018). Estimation of the Nei's genetic distance between populations was 0.011. The results of this survey indicated that P. orientalis from the north-western Caucas us has high levels of genetic variations and small levels of interpopu lational differentiation. Analysis of linkage of isozyme loci was cond ucted. Recombination frequency estimates (r = 0,074) suggest fight lin kage between Pgm-2 and Mdh-3.