TITLE	Evaluations of the natural monument populations of Camellia japonica (Theaceae) in Korea based on allozyme studies
AUTHOR	Yeehn Yeeh Institute of Basic Sciences, Inje University, Kimhae 621-749, The Republic of Korea Soon Suk Kang Department of Biology, Gyeongsang National University, Chinju 660-701, The Republic of Korea Myong Gi Chung Department of Biology, Gyeongsang National University, Chinju 660-701, The Republic of Korea
FULL TEXT	[in HTML format] [in PDF format]
ABSTRACT	The allozyme diversity of 17 Korean Camellia japonica populations was investigated using starch gel electrophoresis in order to evaluate the levels of genetic diversity in natural monument (NAM) in comparison to other natural (NNM) populations. Although the approximate mean population size of NAM is smaller than that of NNM, the mean percentage of polymorphic loci, mean number of alleles per loci, and mean expected heterozygosity (He) were not significantly different between NAM and NNM populations. In addition, Wright's F-statistic values (FIS, FIT, and FST) and estimates of gene flow for polymorphic loci were not significantly different from each other in pairwise comparisons between the groups. Although Korean populations of C. japonica maintain high levels of genetic diversity within populations (mean He = 0.266) and the degree of population differentiation is moderate (mean FST = 0.126), the several isolated natural populations of the species in Korea, which are at the margin of the species range, coupled with habitat fragmentation by human disturbance may suffer an erosion of genetic diversity in the near future. The results of this study suggest that a large portion of genetic diversity for Korean populations of C. japonica could be conserved by maintaining a few populations. The populations could be used as resources of genetic diversity for the restoration of genetically depauperate populations in the future.
KEYWORD	Allozyme diversity; Conservation; Korean Camellia japonica; Natural monuments;
ARTICLE INFO	Botanical Bulletin of Academia Sinica, Volume 37 Number 2 April 1996, page 141-146, 6 pages
PUBLISHER	Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China