Wild cherry (Prunus avium L.) is a multi-purpose tree species with great ecological and economic importance for European forestry. Evaluating this species phenotypic diversity and quantitative traits characterization is of great importance to define its genetic resources conservation and breeding strategies. In this work, variations of physiological, biochemical, anatomical and morphological traits of one-year-old wild cherry seedlings were evaluated within and among populations to distinguish and characterize their phenotypic portfolio. We observed significant differences at the intra- and inter-population levels considering both biochemical and physiological leaf traits, whereas differences in morphological and anatomical traits were found to be significant only among half-sib lines within populations (i.e. intra-population level). With a multivariate approach, we explored the inter-population specificity and found out that the tiered approach spanning from organ morphology, across physiological scale, to the biochemical level gave out enough power to discriminate between different populations, and their acquisition and resource-use strategies. Moreover, stepwise discriminative analysis showed that radical scavenger capacity against 2,2’-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline- 6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS•+) and water-use efficiency contributed to discrimination of studied populations to the largest extend. Lastly, our study highlights the robustness of certain functional traits, such as ABTS•+, water-use efficiency, net photosynthesis, total flavonoid content, width of stomata guard cell, and stomatal aperture length, which could be considered as a proxy to discriminate between wild cherry populations and assess phenotypic diversity.

中文翻译：

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通过多变量统计分析评估野樱桃（Prunus avium L.）种群和半同系的表型多样性

野樱桃 （樱桃L.) 是一种多用途树种，对欧洲林业具有重要的生态和经济意义。评估该物种的表型多样性和数量性状表征对于确定其遗传资源保护和育种策略具有重要意义。在这项工作中，一岁野樱桃幼苗的生理、生化、解剖学和形态特征的变化在种群内和种群间进行了评估，以区分和表征它们的表型组合。考虑到生化和生理叶片特征，我们观察到种群内和种群间水平的显着差异，而形态学和解剖学特征的差异被发现仅在种群内的半同胞系中（即种群内水平）显着。通过多变量方法，我们探索了种群间的特异性，发现从器官形态、生理尺度到生化水平的分层方法提供了足够的能力来区分不同的种群，以及它们的获取和资源使用策略。此外，逐步判别分析表明，自由基清除剂对 2,2'-偶氮基-双（3-乙基苯并噻唑啉-6-磺酸）(ABTS•+) 的清除能力和水分利用效率最大程度地影响了研究人群的判别。最后，我们的研究强调了某些功能性状的稳健性，例如 ABTS•+、水分利用效率、净光合作用、总黄酮含量、气孔保卫细胞宽度和气孔孔径长度，