Assessing the genetic consequences of flower-harvesting in Rhododendron decorum Franchet (Ericaceae) using microsatellite markers |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Ghent University, Department of Plant Biotechnology and Bioinformatics, Technologiepark 71, B-9052 Ghent, Belgium;2. VIB-UGent Center for Plant Systems Biology, Technologiepark 71, B-9052 Ghent, Belgium;3. Laboratory of Plant Genetics, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, 1050 Brussels, Belgium;4. KULeuven, Division of Crop Biotechnics, Willem de Croylaan 42 box 2427, 3001 Leuven, Belgium;5. UHasselt, Environmental Biology, Centre for Environmental Sciences, 3590 Diepenbeek, Belgium;6. Wageningen Seed Laboratory, Laboratory of Plant Physiology, Laboratory of Biochemistry, Wageningen University, 6708 PB Wageningen, The Netherlands |
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| Abstract: | Rhododendron decorum is widely distributed shrub in southwest China, and its flower is a favorite food of the local people. To investigate the impacts of harvesting, we genotyped 8 nuclear microsatellite loci in a total of 247 individuals from 10 natural populations and 4 flower-harvesting populations. No significant differences in allelic richness, effective number of alleles, private allelic richness, heterozygosity and effective population size were found among the natural and flower-harvesting populations. Differentiation between the 14 populations is relatively low (FST = 0.107). R. decorum showed high levels of intra-population genetic diversity. AMOVA analysis indicated that over 89% of the variation was contained within the populations, and that only 0.47% of the variation was attributed by human harvesting practices. Cluster analysis revealed two basic clusters related to the plants' geographical locations. Our results indicate that historical flower-harvesting practices do not lead to loss of genetic variation in R. decorum. |
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| Keywords: | Genetic variation Microsatellites Flower-harvesting |
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