Heritability growth characters in fragmented populations on the tree species Copaifera langsdorffii (Fabaceae)

Abstract

Knowledge about the evolutionary potential of natural populations is critical to ensure the survival of species. The estimate of heritability and genetic correlations among characters are needed to analyze how much of the phenotypic variation of adaptive traits are under the joint action of genetic effects. The aim of this study is to investigate the genetic control of growth traits in fragmented populations of Copaifera langsdorffii using microsatellite markers. The following estimation methods are used in populations: i) an estimate of heritability using relatives inferred by the method of Ritland (1996a), ii) determination of the coefficient of inbreeding and genetic load proposed by Ritland and Travis (2004). These analyzes will be performed using the program Mark (Ritland, 2004). For this, we used two populations of C. langsdorffii, located in a municipal park in São José do Rio Preto (population 1) and the Assis Ecological Station (population 2), both in the state of São Paulo. In a population were mapped and measured the diameter at breast height (DAP) of 112 adult trees and height of 128 juveniles in the population and 2 were mapped and measured the DAP of 57 adult trees and 149 saplings. Then, leaves were collected from these samples were genotyped at eight microsatellite loci. With these data we intend to make the estimates of heritability. This study will assist in breeding programs and genetic conservation to expand knowledge of heritability in forest fragments, and also highlights the importance of genetic variation in the evolution of species through natural selection as well as individuals with potential to be artificially manipulated.