Allozyme Variation in Elymus canadensis from the Tallgrass Prairie Region: Geographic Variation

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Abstract
Populations [63] of E. canadensis were analyzed for 14 allozyme loci. Throughout the entire range of the collections, which included the majority of the tallgrass prairie regions of the USA, only 4 loci were polymorphic. The average heterozygosity per locus was .026. When the allele frequencies were correlated with climatic variables the Apx-1 locus correlated with the east-west variation in precipitation while the Est-9 locus was correlated with north-south temperature-related factors. No evidence is available which indicates a causal relationship between the climatic variables and the genetic variation. In fact, the significant correlation involving the Est-9 locus was believed to be spurious since the variation at the Est-9 locus is distributed ecotypically. The variation pattern at this locus correlated quite well with the boundary of the Wisconsin Glacial. An argument for the maintenance of this ecotypic pattern is developed.