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Population genetics of Penstemon albomarginatus (Plantaginaceae), a rare Mojave Desert species of conservation concern

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Abstract

Penstemon albomarginatus is a psammophytic endemic of the Mojave Desert, found only in deep sand and dune habitats of San Bernardino County, California, Mohave County, Arizona, and Clark and Nye Counties in Nevada. We used six microsatellite loci to assess genetic differentiation and diversity for 228 individuals across the 12 known populations of this rare species. A slight heterozygote deficiency was found in two populations, but most populations show no signs of inbreeding. Results show a geographic pattern of northern populations being more closely related to one another compared to all other geographic regions. Genetic diversity was greatest in the southern populations, with decreasing amounts of diversity observed with latitude. In general, the geographic pattern of genetic diversity among all populations suggests a post-glacial dispersal from south-to-north. Our results are discussed in the framework of anthropogenic pressures on deep sand habitats of the Mojave Desert.

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Acknowledgments

We thank S. Zitzer and the Desert Research Institute for funding and facilitating the fieldwork, and members of the Wolfe and Kubatko labs for helpful discussion. We also thank two anonymous reviewers for helpful suggestions in improving the manuscript. Financial support for laboratory research was provided by the National Science Foundation (DMS 0827256). T. Necamp and S. Fassnacht participated in this research as Undergraduate Research Fellows in the Mathematical Biosciences Institute at The Ohio State University.

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  1. Department of Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology, The Ohio State University, 318 W. 12th Avenue, Columbus, OH, USA

    Andrea D. Wolfe, Timothy Necamp, Susan Fassnacht & Paul Blischak

  2. Department of Statistics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA

    Timothy Necamp, Susan Fassnacht & Laura Kubatko

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  1. Andrea D. Wolfe
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  2. Timothy Necamp
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Correspondence to Andrea D. Wolfe.

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Wolfe, A.D., Necamp, T., Fassnacht, S. et al. Population genetics of Penstemon albomarginatus (Plantaginaceae), a rare Mojave Desert species of conservation concern. Conserv Genet 17, 1245–1255 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10592-016-0857-y

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