Diversidade genética em populações de Aechmea fulgens Brongn. (Bromeliaceae) em fragmentos de Mata Atlântica em Pernambuco

Abstract

Habitats fragmentation is the greatest cause of biodiversity erosion in tropical forests among the anthropic action. Due to the high degree of fragmentation and the isolation of the remaining Atlantic forest, many populations are being extinguished locally while others are suffering losses of its genetic variability. The Bromeliaceae family has a great variety of tropical ornamental species. Eleven species of the Aechmea genus occur in the State of Pernambuco, and although it is of great economic and ecological importance, there has been few studies on its genetic diversity. Aechmea fulgens is a native Atlantic forest species, which natural populations may be suffering losses on the genetic variability. Plants genetic diversity may be estimated in many ways. Modern techniques on molecular biology allow observing the polymorphism directly on the organism genic sequence. Molecular markers broaden the horizons on researches for the conservation of species and have been widely used to monitor the genetic variability. Among many molecular markers available, SSR and ISSR are relevant. With the of aim evaluating the degree of genic diversity on Aechmea fulgens populations, providing from three different fragments of Atlantic forest in Pernambuco, SSR and ISSR markers were used. Twelve pairs of microsatellites oligonucleotides developed for Tillandsia, Guzmania and Pictairnia bromeliad genera were tested. From these, only five pairs had polymorphism, showing transference of these primers to the Aechmea gender. Twenty ISSR oligonucleotides were used to amplify Aechmea fulgens sample, from which eight primers that had the most consistent polymorphism. The analysis on variance results revealed greater differences inside populations than among them. The results suggest that both markers may be used for genetic variability evaluation, contributing for the success of future studies and species conservation programs.