TITLE	Comparisons of allozyme variation of narrow endemic and widespread species of Far East Euphorbia (Euphorbiaceae)
AUTHOR	Ki-Ryong PARK* Department of Biology, Kyung-Nam University, Masan 631-701, Korea
FULL TEXT	[in HTML format] [in PDF format]
ABSTRACT	Genetic variation from 19 populations representing four species of Euphorbia was compared using isozyme markers. Euphorbia fauriei and E. garanbiensis are rare endemic species in Korea and Taiwan, respectively while E. pekinensis and E. jolkinii are widespread in Korea and Taiwan. A low level of genetic variation and high genetic differentiation among populations was found in E. garanbiensis, which has a restricted distribution, small population sizes, gravity-dispersed seeds, and is possibly a self-pollinator. Alternatively, E. garanbiensis may have recently evolved from a continental progenitor or may be a relictual lineage from the continental flora. The high genetic diversity found in E. fauriei is unusual and may be explained by its recent origin from a widespread continental progenitor, E. pekinensis. An alternative explanation is that E. fauriei survived in refugia during the last glaciation in the Korean peninsula. The idea of progenitor-derivative species pairs between E. pekinensis and E. fauriei is supported by the high genetic identity values between the two species and the putative derivative E. fauriei having no unique allele and lacking some rare alleles present in the putative progenitor E. pekinensis.
KEYWORD	Allozyme variation; Euphorbia fauriei; Euphorbia garanbiensis; Euphorbia jolkinii; Euphorbia pekinensis;
ARTICLE INFO	Botanical Bulletin of Academia Sinica, Volume 45 Number 3 July 2004, page 221-228, 8 pages
PUBLISHER	Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China