Authors: Takeshi Izawa Takayuki Kawahara Hideki Takahashi
Publish Date: 2007/03/15
Volume: 8, Issue: 6, Pages: 1369-1376
Abstract
Cypripedium macranthos var rebunense is an endangered plant endemic to Rebun Island Japan A proper understanding of genetic diversity is needed when conducting conservation programs for rare and endangered species We therefore examined the genetic diversity of C macranthos var rebunense using allozyme markers with a view to future conservation Our study revealed that C macranthos var rebunense has relatively high genetic diversity P was 062 n a and n e were 185 and 128 respectively and H o and H e were 0163 and 0187 respectively when compared with other plant taxa The natural habitats of C macranthos var rebunense are geographically separated into northern and the southern populations Disappearance of alleles and increase in homozygosity expected as a result of the bottleneck effect were observed particularly in the southern populations composed of a small number of plants As additional negative effects inbreeding depression and further genetic drift due to fragmentation are predicted in these populations the southern populations may show deterioration of genetic diversity in the near futureWe thank M Somata S Miyamoto Y Saito and other islanders for their kind help during the fieldwork on Rebun Island We also thank Soya Forestry Management Office and Rebun Town The first author thanks Y Sato Y Kato G Sarwar and T Lackner for their help during fieldwork and grammatical revision of the manuscript This study was supported by the Ministry of Environment of Japan Kogaiboshito shiken kenkyu and the Ministry of Education Culture Sports Science and Technology of Japan GrantinAid for Scientific Research 16310157
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