Premium
The effects of regeneration by fragmentation upon clonal diversity in the tropical forest shrub Poikilacanthus macranthus : random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) results
Author(s) -
Ashley I. Bush,
Mulcahy
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
molecular ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.619
H-Index - 225
eISSN - 1365-294X
pISSN - 0962-1083
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-294x.1999.00641.x
Subject(s) - biology , rapd , shrub , genetic diversity , acanthaceae , botany , fragmentation (computing) , diversity index , ecology , species richness , population , demography , sociology
Poikilacanthus macranthus (Acanthaceae), like many shrubs in the neotropical cloud forest of Monteverde, Costa Rica, is capable of regeneration through stem and twig fragments. Our field sampling indicated that reproduction in P. macranthus is primarily through fragmentation in the Monteverde region. Random amplified polymorphic DNAs (RAPDs) were employed to examine clonal diversity in four populations of P. macranthus , and two primers yielded 11 variable markers that were used to identify genets. Sixty‐eight multilocus genotypes were identified out of 277 plants sampled. Clonal diversity values were higher than the average for clonal plant species, as the number of genets per ramet was 0.25, while the mean D value was 0.87 and the mean E value was 0.84.