AOBPreview originally published online on May 21, 2004
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Annals of Botany 94: 109-117, 2004
© 2004 Annals of Botany Company
Investigation of Genetic and Morphological Variation in the Sago Palm (Metroxylon sagu; Arecaceae) in Papua New Guinea
1 Department of Systematic Botany, University of Aarhus, Nordlandsvej 68, DK-8240 Risskov, Denmark, 2 Department of Ecology, Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, Rolighedsvej 21, DK-1958 Frederiksberg C, Denmark and 3 Department of Evolutionary Botany, University of Copenhagen, Gothersgade 140, DK-1123 Copenhagen K, Denmark
* For correspondence. Present address Bramstrup 5, DK-5792 Årslev, Denmark. E-mail: anders.kjaer{at}biology.au.dk
Received: 16 June 2003; Returned for revision: 10 September 2003; Accepted: 9 March 2004. Published electronically: 21 May 2004
Background and Aims The genetic and morphological variation in the sago palm (Metroxylon sagu, Arecaceae) in Papua New Guinea (PNG) was investigated.
Methods Amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) was used to investigate the genetic structure of 76 accessions of M. sagu, collected in seven wild and semi-wild stands in PNG.
Key Results An analysis of ten quantitative morphological variables revealed that most of these were mutually correlated. Principal component analyses of the same morphological variables showed that neither armature (presence or absence of spines) nor geographical separation was reflected clearly in the quantitative morphological variation. Similarity matrices of genetic, quantitative morphological, geographical and armature data were tested for pair-wise correlations, using Mantels test. The results only showed a significant correlation between genetic and geographical distances. Visual inspection of principal component analyses plots and a neighbour-joining dendrogram based on genetic distances supported this trend, whereas armature showed no relation with genetic distances.
Conclusions Geographical distribution defines some weak patterns in the genetic variation, whereas the genetic variation does not reflect any patterns in the morphological variation, including armature. The present study supports the accepted taxonomy of M. sagu, recognizing only one species of M. sagu in PNG.
Key words: Metroxylon sagu, sago palm, AFLP, genetic variation, morphological variation, Papua New Guinea.
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