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Spatial Scales of Pollen and Seed-Mediated Gene Flow in Tropical Rain Forest Trees

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Abstract

Gene flow via seed and pollen is a primary determinant of genetic and species diversity in plant communities at different spatial scales. This paper reviews studies of gene flow and population genetic structure in tropical rain forest trees and places them in ecological and biogeographic context. Although much pollination is among nearest neighbors, an increasing number of genetic studies report pollination ranging from 0.5–14 km for canopy tree species, resulting in extensive breeding areas in disturbed and undisturbed rain forest. Direct genetic measures of seed dispersal are still rare; however, studies of fine scale spatial genetic structure (SGS) indicate that the bulk of effective seed dispersal occurs at local scales, and we found no difference in SGS (Sp statistic) between temperate (N = 24 species) and tropical forest trees (N = 15). Our analysis did find significantly higher genetic differentiation in tropical trees (F ST = 0.177; N = 42) than in temperate forest trees (F ST = 0.116; N = 82). This may be due to the fact that tropical trees experience low but significant rates of self-fertilization and bi-parental inbreeding, whereas half of the temperate tree species in our survey are wind pollinated and are more strictly allogamous. Genetic drift may also be more pronounced in tropical trees due to the low population densities of most species.

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Acknowledgments

CWD is supported by the National Science Foundation (DEB 064039) and the European Union (SEEDSOURCE INPA subcontract). RJP is supported by the European Union (EVOLTREE Network of Excellence and the SEEDSOURCE project, FP6-2002-INCO-DEV-1) as well as the Institut Français de la Biodiversité. FAJ is supported by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute with a Tupper Post-doctoral Fellowship and by the National Science Foundation (DEB 043665). OJH is supported by the Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique - FNRS (Belgium). We would like to thank three anonymous reviewers for useful suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Herbarium, University of Michigan, 830 North University Avenue, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA

    Christopher W. Dick

  2. Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, P.O. Box 0843-03092, Balboa Ancón, Republic of Panama

    Christopher W. Dick & F. Andrew Jones

  3. Behavioural and Evolutionary Ecology Unit, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium

    Olivier J. Hardy

  4. Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, UMR Biodiversity, Genes and Communities, 33610, Cestas, France

    Rémy J. Petit

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  1. Christopher W. Dick
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  2. Olivier J. Hardy
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  3. F. Andrew Jones
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  4. Rémy J. Petit
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Correspondence to Christopher W. Dick.

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Communicated by Paul H. Moore

Electronic supplementary material

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12042_2007_9006_MOESM1_ESM.xls

Supplemental material Table of published F ST values for 82 temperate zone, 11 subtropical, and 42 tropical tree species. Also included, pollination mode (biotic or abiotic), stature of reproductive individuals (meters), type of marker used (allozyme, microsatellite, RAPD, AFLP, RFLP) (DOC 44 KB)

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Dick, C.W., Hardy, O.J., Jones, F.A. et al. Spatial Scales of Pollen and Seed-Mediated Gene Flow in Tropical Rain Forest Trees. Tropical Plant Biol. 1, 20–33 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12042-007-9006-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12042-007-9006-6

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