Island species are particularly vulnerable to extinction and decline due to a range of factors, including isolation, small population sizes, climate change, or the introduction of alien species. Given their high levels of biodiversity, the preservation and protection of island endemic species are fundamental to reducing the loss of global diversity. Therefore, species delimitation, description and identification are among the most important tasks in conservation biology. However, determining species boundaries in some cases can be challenging, especially in groups that have radiated recently, where frequently used molecular markers do not have enough discrimination power. Thus, it is important to look for new approaches with higher resolution. In the present study, we test the use of retrotransposon-based molecular markers to investigate the taxonomic status of five endemic and endangered Lotus species in the Canary Islands. Our analysis revealed that the five species conform different entities, in concordance with their morphological differences, and shown that the technique named inter-Primer Binding Site (iPBS) is a reliable molecular marker system that allows to discriminate among Lotus and has a potential value for taxonomy and conservation.

中文翻译：

---

基于逆转录转座子的分子标记作为划定 Ryncholotus 部分物种的工具，Ryncholotus 是 Macaronesian Lotus 的最近辐射组

由于一系列因素，包括孤立、人口规模小、气候变化或外来物种的引入，岛屿物种特别容易灭绝和减少。鉴于其高度的生物多样性，岛屿特有物种的保存和保护对于减少全球多样性的丧失至关重要。因此，物种划定、描述和鉴定是保护生物学中最重要的任务之一。然而，在某些情况下确定物种边界可能具有挑战性，特别是在最近辐射的群体中，经常使用的分子标记没有足够的区分能力。因此，寻找具有更高分辨率的新方法很重要。在目前的研究中，我们测试了使用基于逆转录转座子的分子标记来调查加那利群岛五种地方性和濒危莲花物种的分类状态。我们的分析表明，这五个物种符合不同的实体，与其形态差异一致，并表明名为 inter-Primer Binding Site (iPBS) 的技术是一种可靠的分子标记系统，可以区分 Lotus 并具有潜在价值分类学和保护。