Lack of allozyme variation in the two carnivorous, terrestrial herbs Utricularia bifida and Utricularia caerulea (Lentibulariaceae) co-occurring on wetlands in South Korea: Inference of population history

Abstract

In central and southern Korea, the two small insectivorous, terrestrial herbs, Utricularia bifida and U. caerulea, often co-occur at wet locations (or in wetlands). The Korean Peninsula (with central China and northern Japan) constitutes the northern edge of their distribution, as their main range is subtropical and tropical Asia. The Korean populations of both species are very likely of post-glacial origin, given that warm-temperate vegetation was absent from the Korean Peninsula during the Last Glacial Maximum. Two hypotheses of the post-glacial colonization of the peninsula can be formulated; first, if current populations were founded by propagules coming from a single ancestral population (i.e., a single refugium), we would expect low levels of genetic diversity. Alternatively, if contemporary Korean populations originated from multiple sources (multiple refugia), we would expect high levels of genetic variation. To test which is more likely, we surveyed the degree of allozyme variation at 20 loci in ten populations for each of the two species from southern Korea. We found no allozyme variation within each species. However, their aquatic congener U. australis exhibited allozyme polymorphism across Japan (four polymorphic loci at three enzyme systems). We suggest that southern Korean populations of Utricularia bifida and U. caerulea were established by a single introduction event from a genetically depauperate ancestral population.