RAPD Evidence for Apomixis and Clonal Populations in Eriotheca (Bombacaceae)

Abstract: Two woody species of Eriotheca (Bombacaceae) of the Central Brazilian Cerrados were submitted to RAPD analyses. Both species are bee pollinated and have a similar flower structure, but E. pubescens presents adventitious embryony and apomixis, while E. gracilipes is self-incompatible. The RAPD screening reflects these differences in breeding systems, with very low genetic variation in the apomictic species, while the sexual species presented much higher variability with no similar genotypes among the sampled trees. The results suggest that adventitious embryony in E. pubescens effectively results in clonal populations or population mosaics of clonal individuals. Since recent studies have indicated poly-embryony and possibly apomixis in a number of Cerrado woody species otherwise considered obligatorily allogamous, the RAPD results presented here indicate the technique will be a useful tool to detect clonal populations of apomictic origin among Cerrado woody species with mixed mating systems and will help to assess the importance of apomixis as a breeding system for the Cerrado flora.