Genetic diversity in Eremostachys superba Royle ex Benth. (Lamiaceae), an endangered Himalayan species, as assessed by RAPD

Abstract

Eremostachys superba Royle ex Benth. (Lamiaceae) has undergone a severe decline in population size since its discovery in the North-western Himalayas in late 19th century. One hundred and seventy-two plants from six populations in the Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir, located between 0.45 km and 455.72 km apart from each other were evaluated for RAPD polymorphism. Sixteen random primers generated 92 bands overall, 77 of which were polymorphic. Shannon's index of genetic diversity within populations (H o ) ranged between 0.305 and 0.421; the average within-population diversity (H pop ) was 0.389; and the total species diversity (H sp ) was 0.478. The population from Mohand (representing the type locality) had the fewest plants, at 18, and was genetically the most depauperate. Among the other populations, ranging in size between 52 and 1,022 individuals, no relation between population size and genetic diversity was evident. It is suggested that these six populations represent relics of a larger, extended population, in which the presence of perennating rootstocks has helped preserve historic patterns of genetic diversity. AMOVA revealed that 83.01% of the variation exists within populations, which was consistent with earlier studies on the reproductive biology of E. superba, which indicated this species is predominantly allogamous. FST distances between all populations were significant, indicating geographic differentiation despite some of them being closely separated. Habitat restoration and protection from indiscriminate harvesting are proposed as primary strategies for conserving E. superba. Rejuvenation of the Mohand population through intrapopulation crossing between plants bearing diverse molecular phenotypes is also suggested.

<b>Conservation status assessment and new population record of the threatened Golden Himalayan Spike <I>Phlomoides superba</I> (Royle ex Benth.) Kamelin & Makhm. from Jammu & Kashmir, India</b>

“…Mohand, Bal Shama etc.). b) Low regeneration potential: Low regeneration potential is also observed and reported by earlier workers (Garg & Rao 1997, Verma et al 2007, Pundir 2015 as one of the main causes of population decline. The low regeneration potential is due to low seed set and lower germination percentage with short viability period.…”

“…This taxon has not yet been included in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species; however, different conservation status were proposed by previous workers, viz., 'Vulnerable' (Jain & Sastry 1980;Ved et al 2003;Samant et al 2007;Pant & Pant 2011), 'Endangered' (Jain & Sastry 1984;Garg & Rao 1997;Verma et al 2007;Pundir 2015), 'Critically Endangered' (Verma et al 2007;Panwar 2014;Panwar et al 2014) and 'Near to Extinction' (Som 1968;Rao & Garg 1994), which were based on the study of one or a few localities.…”

“…The population of the type locality though falls in the outer boundary of Rajaji Tiger Reserve but is located near road side adjacent to Saharanpur-Dehradun highway as a result of which this population it at the verge of extinction. The human interferences in terms of crop field extension, grazing by cattle, and exploitation for medicinal and species was also determined by comparing the earlier population records reported by different workers (Jain & Sastry 1980;Verma et al 2007;Uniyal et al 2012;Pundir 2015) with the present number of surviving individuals. Justification for the threat assessment is included in Appendix 1.…”

DNA Markers for Food Products Authentication

“…RAPDs are able to detect, concurrently, loci in several regions of a genome. Although most of the RAPD markers are dominant, and therefore do not allow to distinguish whether the amplified DNA segment is heterozygous or homozygous at a particular locus, RAPD analysis has been widely used for taxonomic and phylogenetic studies [14,15] for species differentiation [16,17] and to study phylogeographic patterns of genetic variations [18,19]. However, RAPD technique requires maintaining strictly consistent reaction conditions in order to achieve reproducible profiles [20].…”

Genetic diversity of &lt;i&gt;Persea bombycina&lt;/i&gt; from goalpara district of Assam, India

“…The simplicity, efficiency, and relative ease of performing RAPD techniques, without sequence information, have led to their expanded use for taxonomic and systemic analysis and phylogenetic studies of plants, species differentiation, and phylogeographic variation, as well as for studying breeding and genetic relationships [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]. RAPD techniques have recently been used in genetic diversity studies of a wide range of tree plants [21,22].…”