Premium
Genetic differentiation in endemic Lobularia (Brassicaceae) in the Canary Islands
Author(s) -
Borgen Liv
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
nordic journal of botany
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.333
H-Index - 33
eISSN - 1756-1051
pISSN - 0107-055X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1756-1051.1996.tb00263.x
Subject(s) - biology , genetic diversity , subspecies , inbreeding , population , genetic divergence , genetic variation , endemism , evolutionary biology , biological dispersal , zoology , ecology , genetics , demography , sociology , gene
Patterns of genetic diversity were examined in five endemic subspecies of the Lobularia canariensis complex from six of the Canary Islands. The taxa are interfertile, insect‐pollinated outbreeders with wind dispersal. Electrophoretic analysis revealed a high level of genetic polymorphism at ten loci coding soluble enzymes, with a mean of 2.38 alleles per locus, 73.7 % polymorphic loci, and a mean heterozygosity of 0.279. Excesses of homozygotes, indicating inbreeding, were observed in small populations. The average total diversity was high, F.,=0.518. Among‐population diversity, F ST =0.318, contributed more to the total diversity than within‐population diversity, F IS =0.222. Little geographic or taxonomic patterning of the allozyme variation was observed. The mean genetic identitity for pairwise comparisons of the 19 populations was 0.76, with a range of 0.51–0.96 and c. 17 % of the comparisons below 0.67 and c. 8 % above 0.90. The results contrast with the many cases of high genetic identities reported for populations of endemic plants on oceanic islands. High levels of allozyme divergence suggest a relatively old origin of the L. canariensis complex and a long period of isolation of some of the populations.