Soil microvariations as a source of variability in the wild: the case of secondary metabolism in Origanum dayi post.

The volatile components of Origanum dayi Post were analyzed in 10 wild populations grown in a limited area. ANOVA tests showed no significant differences among the compositions of plants that grew in different locations, which suggests that differences in composition are of genetic origin and do not spring from environmental variation. However, the use of new statistical methods (such as use of the correlation coefficient, r, as a parametric value) revealed that, despite their reduced range of variation, most of the 22 soil properties (SPs) measured correlated with the composition of the volatile components. This analysis also indicated that the main volatile components were modified in parallel in response to SP variations. It is concluded that variations in soil properties affected the composition of volatile components in O. dayi, and that the main influencing factors were soil microelement contents and texture. This study highlights the need for highly sensitive statistical tools to determine the actual influence of environmental factors in natural environments, especially when their range of variation is small.