Abstract
Scrophularia grayana, which is distributed throughout northern Japan and Sakhalin, and its locally endemic variety var. grayanoides, have been examined morphometrically and genetically. Principal-component analysis using a total of 26 morphological characteristics revealed that these taxa are morphologically differentiated, but that the difference is not distinct. These two taxa have the same number of chromosomes in the somatic cells, 2n = 94, suggesting that ploidal level difference is not relevant to their divergence. The distributions of the taxa are adjoining in the north of Japanese mainland Honshu. Nevertheless, principal-coordinate analysis using putative 112 ISSR loci indicated they are genetically very distinct. Many taxon-specific alleles were found, and many of the alleles were fixed in each taxon. This genetic information suggests that a relatively long time has passed since the taxa became differentiated and that gene flow has rarely occurred between them, although morphological similarity has been maintained, probably because of natural selective forces.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Dr I. Dohzono for collecting materials and for her useful comments. Our thanks also go to F. Tada for analyzing the data and to S. Horie for drawing the figures and collecting the materials. This study was partly supported by a Grant-in-Aid from the Japan Ministry of Education, Science, Sports, and Culture, to MM.
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An erratum to this article can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10265-007-0102-3
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Kamada, T., Yamashiro, T. & Maki, M. Intraspecific morphological and genetic differentiation in Scrophularia grayana (Scrophulariaceae). J Plant Res 120, 437–443 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10265-007-0084-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10265-007-0084-1