Abstract

The narrow central Italian endemic and threatened Webb’s hyacinth (Bellevalia webbiana), a perennial herb, is a clear example of a species that has disappeared from several localities due to the development of human settlements. We characterized population genetics of this species to infer possible threats to its viability. We used a dominant DNA fingerprinting approach to infer genetic relationships among the five richest populations known for this species (each with N > 50 individuals). We highlighted phenomena of genetic erosion, with values of intrapopulation-gene-diversity quite similar across all populations (mean value 0.113), but a mean F _st value only slightly below the mean found in other plant species using similar approaches. Despite an overall genetic similarity among populations, a population from Faenza (Emilia-Romagna) is clearly separated from all the others on genetic grounds, and may be defined as an Evolutionarily Significant Unit, worth of special conservation attention. Interestingly, this latter population is also behaving differently from all the others in terms of both vegetative and reproductive functional strategies. Our results highlight the relevance of evolutionary approaches to conservation biology for preserving a genetic diversity linked to local adaptations.

摘要

狭窄的意大利中部特有种并威胁着多年生草本植物韦伯的风信子（Bellevalia webbiana），这是一个明显的例子，该物种由于人类住区的发展而从几个地方消失了。我们表征了该物种的种群遗传学，以推断对其生存能力的可能威胁。我们使用了显性DNA指纹图谱方法来推断该物种已知的五个最富有的种群之间的遗传关系（每个种群的N  > 50个个体）。我们强调了遗传侵蚀现象，所有人群的种群内基因多样性值都非常相似（均值0.113），但平均F _st值仅略低于使用类似方法在其他植物物种中发现的平均值。尽管种群之间总体上遗传相似，但法恩扎（Emilia-Romagna）的一个种群在遗传基础上显然与其他种群分离，可以被定义为进化上重要的单位，值得特别注意保护。有趣的是，在营养和生殖功能策略方面，后一种人群的行为方式也与其他人群不同。我们的结果强调了进化生物学方法与保护生物学对于保存与本地适应性相关的遗传多样性的相关性。