Distribution of individual heterozygosity in natural populations of Platanus orientalis L. in Bulgaria

Distribution of individual heterozygosity was studied in 9 natural populations of Platanus orientalis L. in Bulgaria. The heterozygosity was assessed by using isoenzyme genetic markers. The study of distribution of individual heterozygosity in populations is an indirect indicator of the way of crossing and how much actual genetic structure of the populations approaches the theoretically expected one. In the present study, the average number of heterozygous loci per individual of all populations was 2.81 (21.58% of all tested loci). The results show that, in general, in the studied populations of Platanus orientalis there is a crossing that is close to the panmixiа, corresponding to the model of "ideal population". This means that the studied populations produce seed with high heterozygosity and may, if necessary, be used for harvesting of seed materials for forestation purposes and for conservation of valuable gene pool ex situ.