| Summary: | The moss Drepanocladus trifarius (F. Weber & D. Mohr) Broth. ex Paris was used as a model species for a first evaluation of whether male and female haplotype patterns based on a combination of the nuclear molecular markers ITS and gpd, and the chloroplast rpl16 are congruent or not. In 23 female and 23 male shoots from specimens sampled in Northern and Central Europe, sex was determined either by the presence of sexual branches or by a recently developed molecular marker. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) showed that a small (6%) and almost significant (p = 0.066) fraction of the variation within the data is due to differences between the genders and that the haplotype diversity is higher among females than among males. No significant differences in haplotype variation were found among geographical regions. The near significant differences between females and males, despite low variation in ITS and rpl16, in this first study ever of potential differences in haplotype variation between genders of dioecious mosses suggests that further investigations of more specimens and more variable molecular markers should be performed. Such studies could potentially reveal patterns of relevance to understanding, for example, immigration routes and to pin-point refugial areas of different significance to the respective genders.
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