Distribution pattern and phylogenetic relatonship of cpDNA haplotypes
A total of 19 haplotypes were detected (Figure 1, Table 1), among which 8 haplotypes were unique only to one population, while haplotype H13 was the most common one, followed by H5. Number of haplotypes in each populations ranged from 1 to 4, whereas 5 populations owned only one kind of halotype.
The distribution showed a geographically relevant pattern with 3 geographic groups, also conferred by the haplotype network (Figure 2) and phylogenetic tree (Figure 3). The first group distributed in the northwest (NW), clearly involving population MP, LiS and BTM, contained 3 haplotypes (H1-H3) with H3 being the most frequent one. The second group scattered in the southwest (SW), west from Dabie Mt. to the east of Hengduan Mt., comprising 6 haplotypes (H4-H9) in which H5 was the most dominant one. The third group dispersed from the northeast of Dabie Mt. to Korea, regarded as the east region (E), possessed the most abundant haplotypes (H10-H19), in which H13 took up the most common part.
In a higher resolution, Group E can be further separated into two groups: the northeast group (NE) involving haplotypes of H14-H19, and the southeast group (SE) comprising haplotypes of H10-H12, as four regional groups described above (Table 1). Nonetheless, group SE was not monophyletic in this partition. In a lower resolution, all the haplotypes could be allocated into 2 groups: group NW, and all the other groups, amalgamating group SW and E (NE+SE).