The Chloroplast DNA Polymorphisms of White Oaks of Section Quercus in The Central Balkans

A total of 444 oak trees from 110 populations from a previously under-sampled area in the central Balkans were analysed using four primer/enzyme combinations which amplified and restricted four, largely non-coding regions of the maternally inherited chloroplast DNA. Using the nomenclature of PETIT et al. (2002 a) to classify the haplotypes and lineages, the seven haplotypes that were found in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia and southern Kosovo consisted of haplotypes 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 17, 31, as well as the subtypes of haplotypes 4 (a), 5 (a, b, c), and 17 (a). Five of these haplotypes belong to lineage A. One of these, haplotype 5, is present throughout the sampled area. The distributions of the other haplotypes from this lineage are more geographically structured. The other two haplotypes, haplotype 2 and haplotype 17, belong to lineages C and E, respectively. The data are combined with previous data by PETIT et al. (2002 b) to provide more detailed information of the postglacial routes of colonisation taken by oaks in south-eastern Europe.