Phylogeographical Structure of the Neotropical Forest Tree Hymenaea courbaril (Leguminosae: Caesalpinioideae) and Its Relationship with the Vicariant Hymenaea stigonocarpa from Cerrado

Abstract

The phylogeography of Hymenaea courbaril var. stilbocarpa from Atlantic Forest and riverine forests of the Cerrado biome in central and southeastern Brazil was investigated. The data were compared with those of its congeneric Hymenaea stigonocarpa, a typical tree from savanna. In the Cerrado, H. courbaril var. stilbocarpa is found in sites contiguous with those of H. stigonocarpa, and they share common life-history attributes. The psbC/trnS3 region of the chloroplast DNA was sequenced in 149 individuals of H. courbaril var. stilbocarpa. High genetic variation was found in this species, with the identification of 18 haplotypes, similarly to what was found in H. stigonocarpa with 23 haplotypes in the same geographic region. Populations of H. courbaril var. stilbocarpa could be structured in 3 phylogeographic groups. Spatial analysis of molecular variation indicated that 46.4% of the genetic variation was due to differences among these groups. Three haplotypes were shared by H. courbaril var. stilbocarpa and H. stigonocarpa, and only 10.5% of the total genetic variation could be attributed to between-species difference. We surmise that during the glacial times, H. courbaril var. stilbocarpa populations must have gone extinct in most parts of the southern of its present-day occurrence area. After climate amelioration, these areas were probably recolonized from northern and eastern. The relatively similar phylogeographic structure of vicariant Hymenaea species suggests that they were subjected to the same impacts during the Quaternary climatic fluctuations. The sharing of haplotypes and the genetic similarity between the 2 Hymenaea species suggest the existence of ancestral polymorphism and/or hybridization.

Chloroplast analysis of Zelkova schneideriana (Ulmaceae): genetic diversity, population structure, and conservation implications

“…Therefore, demographic events have played an important role in shaping the genetic diversity of Z. schneideriana. Genetic variety at the cpDNA level mainly existed between populations (F ST = 0.551), which is similar to that previously reported in other endangered plants, such as Dalbergia nigra (Fabaceae, F ST = 0.624) (Ribeiro et al, 2011) and Hymenaea courbaril (Fabaceae, F ST = 0.604) (Ramos et al, 2009). Genetic differences between the populations may have been caused by the limited amount of gene flow (N m = 0.408), due to the species' limited seed dispersal (Fineschi et al, 2002).…”

Phylogeography of the endangered rosewood Dalbergia nigra (Fabaceae): insights into the evolutionary history and conservation of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest

“…However, the genetic structure of D. nigra is weaker than that of Caesalpinia echinata (F ST ¼ 0.911; Lira et al, 2003), based on chloroplast microsatellites, but similar to Hymenaea courbaril, based on cpDNA sequences (F ST ¼ 0.604; Ramos et al, 2009), both of which are leguminous tree species found in the Atlantic Forest. The genetic split separating the NG and SG1 groups of D. nigra was found around 18 o S latitude, between the Jequitinhonha and Doce rivers, coinciding with the split zone range found in several animal species (Costa, 2003;Pellegrino et al, 2005 D. nigra, between the SG1 and SG2 groups, was located around 211S, in the same region of separation between genetic groups found in another two legume trees, Caesalpinia echinata (Lira et al, 2003) and Hymenaea courbaril (Ramos et al, 2009). However, in the Podocarpus species (Ledru et al, 2007), the separation among the three groups appears not to coincide with the split zones found in legume trees.…”

Genetic structure of the endangered Leucomeris decora (Asteraceae) in China inferred from chloroplast and nuclear DNA markers

“…If a major ancient population bottleneck event had happened for the species, a single and common haplotype with high frequency would be observed among all populations (Echt et al 1998). In addition to low genetic diversity, another important feature of the genetic structure of L. decora we detected is the high level of genetic differentiation at the range-wide scale, as indicated by F ST , G ST and N ST estimates both from cpDNA and nDNA (Tables 2, 3 (Ramos et al 2009). High genetic differentiation among populations may mainly be ascribed to the limited amount of gene flow via both seeds and pollen among populations.…”