Morphological and Genetic Data Do Not Support the Intraspecific Taxonomic Classification of Pimenta pseudocaryophyllus

概要

Poster
Poster 4

Morphological and Genetic Data Do Not Support
the Intraspecific Taxonomic Classification of
Pimenta pseudocaryophyllus
Erick W. WEISSENBERG1, João Vicente COFFANI NUNES2, Isis SEBASTIÃO2,
Patrícia Gleydes MORGANTE2 and Gustavo Maruyama MORI1
1

Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Institute of Biosciences, São Paulo State University (UNESP)
2
Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias do Vale do Ribeira - Câmpus de Registro, São Paulo State University (UNESP)

Pimenta pseudocaryophyllus Landrum (Myrtaceae) is an important plant for traditional communities in southwestern Brazil,
used both medicinally and for cultural. Due to the predatory exploitation, it may be at risk of vulnerability requiring. However, little
is known about this species, including whether the name P. pseudocaryophyllus corresponds to a species or a species complex. This
plant is widely distributed in South America, occupying different biomes but the distribution records are concentrated in the Atlantic
Forest and the Cerrado. It presents three taxonomic varieties defined based on vegetative morphology, especially on the shape of
the leaves. P. pseudocaryophyllus var. hoehnei (DC.) Landrum is in the coastal region of southern to southeastern Brazil, mainly
in herbaceous, shrubby, and arboreal coastal sandy habitats (restingas); P. pseudocaryophyllus var. pseudocaryophyllus (Gomes)
Landrum, is distributed in southeastern Brazil mainly in the highlands of ombrophilous dense forests, and P. pseudocaryophyllus
var. fulvescens (Burret) Landrum that occurs in the Cerrado, with rare exceptions in the Bolivian Chaco. However, in the field and in
collections records, a great variation in the shape of the leaves is observed. This study sought to analyze whether there is a congruence
between genetics and morphological aspects of representatives of these taxonomic varieties. We sampled 153 P. pseudocaryophyllus
individuals across four sites and genotyped them using a set of 11 polymorphic microsatellites. We quantified the genetic diversity
of each sample and described their population genetic structure. Complementarily, we used a geometric morphometry of leaves
from a subset of the total samples. We considered the leaf closest to the site’s average and normalized them using General Procrustes
Analysis and performed a Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to describe how taxonomic varieties are organized considering the
leaves’ shapes and sizes. The PCA of the morphology showed individuals comprised groups according to sampling site and variety.
Conversely, the population genetic structure was not congruent with the observed morphological variation. Despite forming clearly
separated clusters. We observed that varieties pseudocaryophyllus and fulvescens grouped together, whereas hoehnei was clearly
differentiated. This preliminary study suggests that, because of the absence of correspondence between leaf morphology and genetics,
leaf shape is likely not a reliable character for the intraspecies taxonomy. ...