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Fine-scale genetic structure of the threatened rosewood Dalbergia nigra from the Atlantic Forest: comparing saplings versus adults and small fragment versus continuous forest

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Abstract

Assessing the population genetic structure of threatened species is important for developing successful conservation strategies. In this study, we evaluated the fine-scale spatial genetic structure (SGS) of Dalbergia nigra from a regenerating secondary forest fragment and compared it with previous data from a primary forest of a large reserve. A total of 107 adult and 111 saplings were mapped and genotyped for seven microsatellite loci. The genetic diversity was high and similar in adults (H e = 0.682) and saplings (H e = 0.680). The spatial extent of SGS was higher in adults than in saplings. Overlapping generations in the potentially reproductive individuals is the likely explanation for the higher SGS in adults (Sp = 0.016) in relation to the saplings (Sp = 0.010). The SGS in the adults from the secondary forest fragment was similar to that found in the primary forest. Considering the SGS found in adults, from both the secondary and primary forests, seeds for ex situ conservation should be collected from trees at least 80 m apart to reduce the genetic similarity between samples. These results highlight the importance of preserving small forest fragments to allow successful regeneration and maintenance of the genetic diversity in D. nigra.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the Instituto Estadual de Florestas (IEF) and Sumidouro State Park for providing facilities and licenses for sample collection. We also thank PCC Ribeiro and HAV Souza for field/data analyses assistance. This work was supported by the Programa Nacional de Pós Doutorado/Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (PNPD/CAPES), Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa de Minas Gerais (FAPEMIG) and Pró-Reitoria de Pesquisa da Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais. FABL received an MSc scholarship from Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Tecnológico (CNPq), RLB received a research fellowship from PNPD/CAPES, and MBL and JPL received a research fellowship from CNPq.

Data archiving statement

All microsatellite locus and primer sequences used in this study have been deposited at GenBank: accession numbers EU805580, EU805581, EU805582, EU805583, EU805584, EU805588 and EU805589. Genotyping data has been deposited at TreeGenes Data Repository accession TGDR012.

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  1. Departamento de Biologia Geral, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, CP 486, ZIP 31270-901, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil

    Fernanda Araújo Batista Leite, Rosângela Luci Brandão, Renata Santiago de Oliveira Buzatti & Maria Bernadete Lovato

  2. Departamento de Botânica, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, CP 486, ZIP 31270-901, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil

    José Pires de Lemos-Filho

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  1. Fernanda Araújo Batista Leite
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  2. Rosângela Luci Brandão
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  3. Renata Santiago de Oliveira Buzatti
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  4. José Pires de Lemos-Filho
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  5. Maria Bernadete Lovato
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Correspondence to Maria Bernadete Lovato.

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Batista Leite, F.A., Brandão, R.L., Buzatti, R.S.d. et al. Fine-scale genetic structure of the threatened rosewood Dalbergia nigra from the Atlantic Forest: comparing saplings versus adults and small fragment versus continuous forest. Tree Genetics & Genomes 10, 307–316 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11295-013-0685-x

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