Sweet Drinks Are Made of This: Conservation Genetics of an Endemic Palm Species from the Dominican Republic

摘要: Pseudophoenix ekmanii is a threatened palm species endemic to the Dominican Republic. Sap from trees extracted make local drink; once they are tapped individual usually dies. Plants also illegally harvested for nursery trade and destroyed by poachers hunting Hispaniolan parrot. We used 7 DNA microsatellite markers assist land managers in developing conservation strategies this palm. sampled 4 populations along known distribution range of (3 mainland 1 small island Isla Beata), total sample n = 104. found strong evidence genetic drift, inbreeding, moderate gene flow (i.e., all had at least loci that were not Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium, 9 pairs linkage disequilibrium, pairwise F ST values ranged 0.069 0.266, positive IS values). Data supported an isolation-by-distance model, cluster analyses based on distances resolved 2 groups match north–south split. The population Beata lowest levels diversity was only one which we individuals with identical shared multilocus genotypes.