ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Systematics and Evolution
This article is part of the Research TopicPhylogenetic and Biogeographic Perspectives on the East Asian Origin of Temperate FloraView all articles
Geographic isolation shapes the genetic landscape of the threatened karst-endemic plant Malania oleifera (Ximeniaceae)
Provisionally accepted
Ye Zhang1,2Shuoxing Wei2
Feng Gao1Zhihui Wang2Qiujie Lu2Xiaoning Zhang2Qiulan Wei2Dong Lin2Ping Wang1*
Mimi Li3*- 1Central South University of Forestry and Technology, Changsha, China
- 2Guangxi University Forestry College, Nanning, China
- 3Institute of Botany, Jiangsu Province and Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, China
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Malania oleifera Chun & S.K. Lee is a rare and endangered tree species endemic to the karst forests of southwestern China. Its seeds are rich in nervonic acid, a compound of significant ecological and economic value. However, habitat fragmentation, overharvesting, and climate change have imposed severe survival pressures on this species, leading to a risk of genetic diversity loss. In this study, we employed genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) to investigate the genome-wide genetic diversity and population structure of 89 individuals from 16 natural populations. A total of 332,551 high-quality single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were obtained. The results showed moderate genetic diversity, with populations in Guangxi exhibiting significantly higher nucleotide diversity than those in Yunnan. Population structure analyses identified six genetic clusters that corresponded closely to their geographic distribution, indicating that geographic isolation is the main driver of genetic differentiation. Mantel tests revealed a highly significant positive correlation between genetic and geographic distances but no correlation with environmental distance, representing a typical isolation-by-distance (IBD) pattern. Redundancy analysis (RDA) identified 4,361 SNPs significantly associated with environmental variables suggesting potential local adaptation signals. Demographic reconstruction revealed that M. oleifera began a sharp and continuous decline in effective population size approximately 30 kya, likely triggered by climatic fluctuations during the Last Glacial Maximum. These findings provide valuable insights for the conservation, restoration, and regional management of this ecologically and economically important species.
Keywords: demographic history, genetic diversity, genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS), Malania oleifera Chun & S.K. Lee, population differentiation
Received: 03 Dec 2025; Accepted: 12 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Zhang, Wei, Gao, Wang, Lu, Zhang, Wei, Lin, Wang and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Ping Wang
Mimi Li
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