Indeed among 25 worldwide ‘biodiversity hotspots’, four are located in Southeast Asia. They are key components of Asian tropical rainforest ecosystems, serving as a foundation on which these highly diverse ecosystems are assembled. However, dipterocarp forests are far more than a mere resource for timber production. Due to massive logging for timber, as well as deforestation for agriculture, many dipterocarps are now classified as endangered or critically endangered. Many Dipterocarpaceae species represent important timber resources, and thus have been heavily exploited in tropical Asian countries. Tree species from a single family, the Dipterocarpaceae, are key community members in Asian tropical forests, accounting for 20–50% of forest basal area and more than 50% of canopy trees. With the goal of studying the genetic diversity, population differentiation, mating system and historical demography of endangered species, the field of conservation genetics provides remarkable insights into the preservation of biodiversity in the real world. In addition, genetic drift is stronger in small populations, further contributing to the fixation of deleterious mutations and loss of genetic variation, which compromise the adaptive potential of a population and thereby increase its extinction risk. Inbreeding leads to homozygosity in detrimental recessive alleles and the consequent production of inferior offspring, a phenomenon known as inbreeding depression. In small, isolated populations, mating occurs more frequently among relatives, and a shift to selfing may be observed in hermaphroditic plants. Endangered species are commonly characterized by small, fragmented populations and restricted gene flow among populations. Conservation genetics, a new discipline that applies the concepts and tools of population genetics to biological conservation, is aimed at preserving endangered species from extinction. Approximately 40% of plant species are threatened with extinction. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.ĭata Availability: All relevant data are within the paper and its Supporting Information files.įunding: This work was supported by the Hainan Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (No.317035, to XM), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.41661010, to LT), and the Scientific Research Foundation of Hainan University (No.kyqd1613 to LT and kyqd1617 to XM).Ĭompeting interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.Įarth’s biodiversity is rapidly declining as a consequence of agricultural expansion, overexploitation, deforestation, pollution and climate change. Received: JAccepted: OctoPublished: November 30, 2020Ĭopyright: © 2020 Wang et al. PLoS ONE 15(11):Įditor: RunGuo Zang, Chinese Academy of Forestry, CHINA hainanensis are proposed.Ĭitation: Wang C, Ma X, Ren M, Tang L (2020) Genetic diversity and population structure in the endangered tree Hopea hainanensis (Dipterocarpaceae) on Hainan Island, China. Based on these findings, appropriate strategies for the long-term conservation of the endangered species H. A recent population bottleneck was revealed, which may cause rapid loss of genetic diversity and increased differentiation across populations. hainanensis populations prior to habitat fragmentation. The observed genetic structure suggests that long-distance gene flow occurred among H. A Mantel test found no correlation between genetic and geographical distances ( r = 0.040, p = 0.418). hainanensis individuals into three genetic groups, which were found to be widespread and overlapping geographically. Bayesian model-based clustering and principal coordinate analysis consistently assigned H. hainanensis exhibited reduced overall genetic diversity and increased population differentiation (AMOVA: F ST = 0.23). Compared to non-threatened Hopea species, H. To facilitate the conservation of this species, genetic diversity and population structure were assessed using 12 SSR markers for 10 populations sampled across Hainan Island. hainanensis has suffered from overexploitation, leading to a sharp population decline. However, because of its highly valued timber, H. On Hainan Island, it is an important indicator species for tropical forests. Hopea hainanensis Merrill & Chun (Dipterocarpaceae) is an endangered tree species restricted to Hainan Island, China and a small part of Northern Vietnam.
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