Elevation As A Barrier: Genetic Structure For An Atlantic Rain Forest Tree (bathysa Australis) In The Serra Do Mar Mountain Range, Se Brazil.

Distance and discrete geographic barriers play a role in isolating populations, as seed and pollen dispersal become limited. Nearby populations without any geographic barrier between them may also suffer from ecological isolation driven by habitat heterogeneity, which may promote divergence by local adaptation and drift. Likewise, elevation gradients may influence the genetic structure and diversity of populations, particularly those marginally distributed. Bathysa australis (Rubiaceae) is a widespread tree along the elevation gradient of the Serra do Mar, SE Brazil. This self-compatible species is pollinated by bees and wasps and has autochoric seeds, suggesting restricted gene dispersal. We investigated the distribution of genetic diversity in six B. australis populations at two extreme sites along an elevation gradient: a lowland site (80-216 m) and an upland site (1010-1100 m.a.s.l.). Nine microsatellite loci were used to test for genetic structure and to verify differences in genetic diversity between sites. We found a marked genetic structure on a scale as small as 6 km (F ST = 0.21), and two distinct clusters were identified, each corresponding to a site. Although B. australis is continuously distributed along the elevation gradient, we have not observed a gene flow between the extreme populations. This might be related to B. australis biological features and creates a potential scenario for adaptation to the different conditions imposed by the elevation gradient. We failed to find an isolation-by-distance pattern; although on the fine scale, all populations showed spatial autocorrelation until ∼10-20 m. Elevation difference was a relevant factor though, but we need further sampling effort to check its correlation with genetic distance. The lowland populations had a higher allelic richness and showed higher rare allele counts than the upland ones. The upland site may be more selective, eliminating rare alleles, as we did not find any evidence for bottleneck.51919-193

A lima bean core collection based on molecular markers

Some germplasm collections have a high number of accessions, which makes it difficult to explore the genetic variability present in the germplasm bank due to the redundancy and the difficulty of detailed analysis of all conserved accessions. Therefore, our study aimed to analyze the genetic diversity of 153 lima bean (Phaseolus lunatus) accessions for the purpose of constructing a core collection. Eleven SSRs were used for this purpose. The 153 lima bean accessions can be represented by low redundancy using a minimum of 34 accessions, thus representing 22 % of the size of the entire germplasm bank. The core collection had a higher Shannon diversity index and expected heterozygosity (1.906 and 0.811, respectively) than those presented by the entire germplasm bank (1.605 and 0.713, respectively), indicating a higher polymorphism of the representative cultivars in relation to the entire collection. The accessions selected for the core collection may be used in future studies of genome association as well as in genetic crosses in breeding programs aimed at developing improved cultivars with high genetic diversity which can meet current and future market needs

Genetic diversity and structure of Piptadenia gonoacantha (Mart.) J. F. Macbr. in areas under forest restoration process and natural remnants of the Atlantic rain forest

A Mata Atlântica é considerada mundialmente um dos biomas prioritários para conservação, devido à elevada riqueza de sua biodiversidade. A preservação da vegetação natural deve estar associada à restauração florestal, de modo que se possa assegurar a continuidade desta rica biota. No Brasil, grande parte dos projetos de restauração florestal realizados até agora tem se preocupado apenas em buscar diversidade florística, contemplando uma baixa diversidade genética em sua implantação, o que têm criado muitos problemas relativos à viabilidade biológica de suas comunidades. O presente trabalho se propôs a realizar um estudo comparando a diversidade genética (utilizando marcadores SSR, cpSSR e AFLP) da espécie arbórea Piptadenia gonoacantha (Mart.) J. F. Macbr. em duas áreas em processo de restauração florestal e dois remanescentes naturais de floresta estacional semidecidual da Mata Atlântica do estado de São Paulo, Brasil. A partir da biblioteca genômica construída, foram obtidos 12 locos SSR. A heterozigosidade média esperada no equilíbrio de Hardy Weinberg (HE = 0,494) foi maior do que a heterozigosidade observada (HO = 0,251) em todas as populações, indicando taxa relativamente alta de endogamia (FIS = 0,342). Os resultados obtidos com os locos cpSSR mostraram, ao todo, 16 haplótipos, dos quais 10 foram encontrados nos remanescentes de floresta nativa e oito nas áreas restauradas. As análises realizadas com os marcadores AFLP resultaram em 303 marcas polimórficas. Uma estrutura genética muito forte foi encontrada relativa às quatro populações, valores de FST foram 0,283, 0,83 e 0,177 em SSR, cpSSR e AFLP, respectivamente. Dez locos de AFLP que podem estar sujeitos a seleção foram encontrados. As análises de agrupamento delimitam claramente as amostras das quarto populações, evidenciando que não existe fluxo gênico significativo entre elas. P. gonoacantha apresentou auto correlação espacial nas quatro populações. Os três tipos de marcadores detectaram maior diversidade genética nos remanescentes naturais do que nas áreas restauradas. Apesar da menor diversidade apresentada pelas áreas restauradas em comparação com as áreas de remanescentes florestais, o tamanho efetivo populacional estimado para essas áreas permite a manutenção da variabilidade existente a curto prazo. As informações obtidas poderão servir para o manejo sustentado desta espécie, bem como para o planejamento de sua conservação.The Atlantic Forest is considered one of the world biomes for conservation priority due to the high richness of its biodiversity. The preservation of natural vegetation should be associated to forest restoration, so that the continuity of this rich biota can be ensured. Recent studies and practices of reforestation in degraded areas have taken population genetics as a great ally. Several of the forest restoration projects carried out in Brazil so far has been concerned just with floristic diversity, contemplating low genetic diversity. This fact has created many problems related to the biological viability of their communities. The present project proposes to carry out a study on the diversity genetic structure of the arboreal species Piptadenia gonoacantha (Mart.) J. F. Macbr. In this study, we used six chloroplast simple-sequence repeats (cpSSRs), AFLP markers and the construction of an enriched SSR DNA library to investigate the genetic diversity of P. gonoacantha. This species was evaluated in two areas that are under forest restoration process and compared then with two natural remnants of semideciduous seasonal Atlantic Forest. 12 SSR markers were obtained and the average HO=0.251 was smaller than the average HE=0.494, evidencing a heterozygote deficit (average FIS= 0.342). The samples shows a strong structure with a significant differentiation. FST values were 0.283, 0.83 and 0.177 for SSR, cpSSR and AFLP respectively. The cluster analyzes clearly demarcating the samples of the four populations. cpSSR markers showed 16 haplotypes, ten of them were found in the remaining native forest and eight in the restored areas. Ten AFLP outliers loci were found. The three types of markers detected a higher genetic diversity in natural remnant than in restored areas. Despite the lower diversity presented by the restored areas compared with areas of forest remaining, the effective population size estimated for these areas allows the maintenance of existing variability. The results of this study prove that there is greater genetic diversity in the remaining natural areas than in the areas undergoing a reforestation process. The information obtained may be used for the sustainable management of this species, as well as for conservation planning