GENETIC VARIATION IN RARE AND WIDESPREAD LOMATIUM SPECIES (APIACEAE): A COMPARISON OF AFLP AND SSCP DATA

Abstract

Plant conservation genetics has been hampered by a lack of markers for studies of levels and patterns of variation in rare species. We investigated the levels of variation in several rare and widespread species of the western North American genus Lomatium Raf. (Apiaceae) using two relatively new molecular markers: AFLPs and single-strand conformation polymorphisms (SSCPs). For each species, approximately 150 AFLP loci have been scored, yielding estimates of species-level percent polymorphic loci in rare species ranging from near zero to over 80%. Levels of AFLP diversity were similar in two of the rare species, L. bradshawii (Rose ex Mathias) Mathas & Constance and L. ochocense Helliwell & Constance, and the widespread species. The third rare species, L. cookii Kagan, which has small populations, has low levels of diversity based on AFLPs. We also examined nucleotide diversity at the single-copy nuclear-DNA locus glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (Gap-C). PCR-amplified segments were analysed for allelic variation using SSCPs, and intrapopulational nucleotide polymorphisms were identified in both L. bradshawii and L. cookii. In the 211bp segment of Gap-C analysed, five nucleotide sites were segregating within populations of L. bradshawii and two in L. cookii.