Format: ORAL

Ivn Rodrguez-Bujn1, Pilar Daz-Tapia1,2, Colin Kelleher3, Micheline Sheehy Skeffington4, Nick Scott5, Jaime Fagndez1,6

1 Universidade da Coruña, BIOCOST research group, Centro Interdisciplinar de Química e Bioloxía (CICA), Rúa As Carballeiras, 15071, A Coruña, Spain 2 Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Departamento de Botánica, Santiago de Compostela, Spain 3 National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, Dublin, D09 VY63, Ireland 4 University of Galway, Galway, Ireland 5 Teach na Tuisceana, Galway, Ireland 6 Universidade da Coruña, Departamento de Bioloxía, Facultade de Ciencias, 15071, A Coruña, Spain

The strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo) is an iconic plant species that occurs throughout the Mediterranean and the south-western European Atlantic coast.In this talk, we present the initial results of a biogeographic study using wide-genome SNPs (nextRAD sequencing) on over 250 specimens from 38 populations throughout most of its distribution range, with a special sampling effort on Irish populations. At a continental level, we provide evidence of the divergence between Mediterranean and Atlantic populations. In a second analysis at the regional scale, we obtained a consistent linkage among Irish populations, probably due to one or more ancient introductions that have inbred for a long period of time. Here, we describe the main putative patterns of genetic differentiation and will discuss the potential routes and events that may have given rise to these.