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Genetic analyses of the federally endangered Echinacea laevigata using amplified fragment length polymorphisms (AFLP)—Inferences in population genetic structure and mating system

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Abstract

Echinacea laevigata (Boynton and Beadle) Blake is a federally endangered flowering plant species restricted to four states in the southeastern United States. To determine the population structure and outcrossing rate across the range of the species, we conducted AFLP analysis using four primer combinations for 22 populations. The genetic diversity of this species was high based on the level of polymorphic loci (200 of 210 loci; 95.24%) and Nei’s gene diversity (ranging from 0.1398 to 0.2606; overall 0.2611). There was significant population genetic differentiation (GST = 0.294; ӨII = 0.218 from the Bayesian f = 0 model). Results from the AMOVA analysis suggest that a majority of the genetic variance is attributed to variation within populations (70.26%), which is also evident from the PCoA. However, 82% of individuals were assigned back to the original population based on the results of the assignment test. An isolation by distance analysis indicated that genetic differentiation among populations was a function of geographic distance, although long-distance gene dispersal between some populations was suggested from an analysis of relatedness between populations using the neighbor-joining method. An estimate of the outcrossing rate based on genotypes of progenies from six of the 22 populations using the multilocus method from the program MLTR ranged from 0.780 to 0.912, suggesting that the species is predominantly outcrossing. These results are encouraging for conservation, signifying that populations may persist due to continued genetic exchange sustained by the outcrossing mating system of the species.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Dale Suiter, Mike Leahy, James Sullivan, Sudie Davis, Kathryn Cherry, Andy Walker, Laura Gadd, and Ben Asma for helping with the collection of material; the NCSU Phytotron for providing space for the plants during the study; and the lab of Dr. Fred Gould. A special thanks to Dr. Edward Vargo, NC State Entomology Department, for letting me use lab equipment and reading over our reviews. Others who aided in some aspect of this study were Jeff Essic (NCSU), GIS; Kathy McKeown, seed stratification; Jordan Mueller, Unix and AWK programming; Kermit Ritland, outcrossing rate program. The authors would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their time and helpful comments to improve this manuscript. This study was partially supported by a grant funded by the VA Nature Conservancy.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Plant Biology, North Carolina State University, 2115 Gardner Hall, Campus Box 7612, Raleigh, NC, 27695-7612, USA

    Melinda D. Peters, Qiu-Yun (Jenny) Xiang, David T. Thomas & Jon Stucky

  2. Museum of Comparative Zoology and Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA

    Noah K. Whiteman

  3. Harvard University Herbaria, 22 Divinity Ave, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA

    Melinda D. Peters

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  1. Melinda D. Peters
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Correspondence to Melinda D. Peters.

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Peters, M.D., Xiang, QY., Thomas, D.T. et al. Genetic analyses of the federally endangered Echinacea laevigata using amplified fragment length polymorphisms (AFLP)—Inferences in population genetic structure and mating system. Conserv Genet 10, 1–14 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10592-008-9509-1

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