Two sympatrics potted gum species are molecular lyhomogeneous
Date
2010Author
Ochieng, Joel W.
Mervyn, Shepherd
Baverstock, Peter R.
Nikles, Garth
Lee, David J.
Henry, Robert J.
Type
ArticleLanguage
enMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Large fruited spotted gum eucalypt Corymbia
henryi occurs sympatrically with small fruited spotted gum
Corymbia citriodora subspecies variegata over a large
portion of its range on the east coast of Australia. The two
taxa are interfertile, have overlapping flowering times and
share a common set of insect and vertebrate pollinators.
Previous genetic analysis of both taxa from two geographically
remote sites suggested that the two were morphotypes
rather than genetically distinct species. In this
studywefurtherexplorethishypothesisofgenicspeciesby
expanding sampling broadly through their sympatric locations
and examine local-scale spatial genetic structure in
stands that differ in species and age composition. Delineation
of populations at five microsatellite loci, using an
individual-basedapproach andBayesianmodelling,as well
as clustering of individuals based on allele frequencies
showed the two species to be molecularly homogeneous.
Genetic structure aligned largely with geographic areas of
origin, and followed an isolation-by-distance model, where
proximal populations were generally less differentiated
than more distant ones. At the stand level, spotted gums
also generally showed little structure consistent with the
high levels of gene flow inferred across the species range.
Disturbances in the uniformity of structuring were detected,
however, and attributed to localised events giving rise
to even aged stands, probably due to regeneration from a
few individuals following fire.
Citation
Conserv Genet (2010) 11:45–56Publisher
Springer Centre for Biotechnology and Bioinformatics