Amorphophallus albus P. Y. Liu & J. F. Chen (Araceae) is a plant species with extremely small populations (PSESP) and an important economic crop endemic to dry-hot valleys along the Jinsha River. In order to gain information for sustaining the development and conservation of A. albus, we studied the genetic diversity and population structure of this species using microsatellite markers (SSR). In this study, we analysed 364 individuals belonging to 24 populations, including four wild populations and three ex-situ cultivated populations, collected in the provinces Yunnan, Sichuan and Hubei. The population genetic analyses indicated that A. albus possesses moderate genetic diversity with the percentage of polymorphic loci (PPL) from 69.23 to 100%, an expected heterozygosity (He) of 0.504 and an average Shannon’s Information Index (I) 0.912. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) indicated that most of the variance (71%) resided within populations and the estimated gene flow (Nm) was 0.61. The results of UPGMA cluster tree, STRUCTURE analyses together with the Mantel test (R2 = 0.352, P < 0.01) indicated that geographically closely located populations are clustered together with some exceptions. Our results showed that A. albus still possesses moderate genetic variation in most of the studied populations, and for now, most cultivated populations were naturally distributed but still some reintroduction exists. For sustaining the present genetic variation, some protections measures are necessary for the wild populations and also for the cultivated ones with high genetic diversity.

中文翻译：

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金沙江干热河谷特有种群极少（PSESP）的植物魔芋的遗传多样性和种群结构。

Amorphophallus albus PY Liu和JF Chen（天南星科）是一种极小种群（PSESP）的植物，是金沙江干热河谷特有的重要经济作物。为了获得维持白粉虱的发展和保护的信息，我们使用微卫星标记（SSR）研究了该物种的遗传多样性和种群结构。在这项研究中，我们分析了云南，四川和湖北省的364个个体，这些个体属于24个种群，其中包括4个野生种群和3个异地栽培种群。群体遗传学分析表明，白al具有中等遗传多样性，多态性位点（PPL）的百分比从69.23至100％，预期杂合度（He）为0.504，香农信息指数（I）平均为0.912。分子变异分析（AMOVA）表明，大多数变异（71％）位于群体内，且估计的基因流量（Nm）为0.61。UPGMA聚类树，结构分析和Mantel检验的结果（R2 = 0.352，P <0.01）表明，地理位置较近的种群聚在一起，但有一些例外。我们的研究结果表明，白studied曲霉在大多数研究种群中仍具有中等的遗传变异，目前，大多数栽培种群是自然分布的，但仍然存在一些重新引入的现象。为了维持目前的遗传变异，必须对野生种群以及遗传多样性高的栽培种群采取一些保护措施。