Genetic variation and clonal diversity of the endangered aquatic fern Ceratopteris pteridoides as revealed by AFLP analysis

Estimation of Mating System in the Endangered Aquatic Fern Ceratopteris pteridoides in China Based on AFLP Molecular Marker and Selfing Test: Implications for Conservation

“…The species is restricted in aquatic habitats in ponds, lakes, rivers, ditches and other wetlands (Lloyd, 1974a). In China, it is mainly distributed in central and south regions (Diao, 1990), however, in recent decades, the number and size of C. pteridoides populations have rapidly declined mainly due to degeneration of primary habitats, continuous decline in area of wetland coverage and overuse of herbicides (Dong et al, 2007;Tao et al, 2007Tao et al, , 2008Chen et al, 2010). The species is now endangered and listed in the second category of the Key Protected Wild Plants in China (Yu, 1999).…”

“…Several factors, including clonal growth, dispersal, mating systems, genetic drift, gene flow, have been proposed to explain the genetic variation patterns observed in C. pteridoides. Among these factors, the mating system has been regarded as a major determinant of genetic diversity, genetic structure and gene flow in C. pteridoides populations (Chen et al, 2010;Dong et al, 2007Dong et al, , 2010. For example, C. pteridoides is a homosporous fern that possesses two types of inbreeding systems (i.e.…”

“…An accurate characterization of mating is important for the conservation of the evolutionary potential of natural populations because altered patterns of mating, such as increased inbreeding, may result in future genetic decline and population extinction (Saccheri et al, 1998). For conservation purposes, in recent years, genetic variation among Chinese C. pteridoides populations has been investigated using a variety of genetic markers, e.g., random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) (Dong et al, 2010), inter simple sequence repeats (ISSRs) (Dong et al, 2007), and amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) (Chen et al, 2010). From these studies, patterns of low level of within-population genetic diversity and moderate to high levels of among-population genetic differentiation were revealed in Chinese C. pteridoides.…”

“…Ceratopteris exhibits a biphasic life cycle with independent autotrophic haploid and diploid generations. populations of C. pteridoides while Chen et al (2010) conducted AFLP analyses and reported that the high level of genetic differentiation among C. pteridoides populations might result from its inbreeding reproductive system. However, none of these studies have intensively investigated the mating system of C. pteridoides.…”

“…The importance of the mating system of C. pteridoides in determining its genetic variation pattern remains largely unknown. Earlier studies on C. pteridoides mainly dealt with its distribution, taxonomy, morphology, ecology, and genetics diversity and structure (Hickok et al, 1995;Chen et al, 2010;Dong et al, 2010Dong et al, , 2012Dong et al, , 2014Cui et al, 2017;Peng et al, 2017).…”