KORPELAINEN, HELENA* AND NORIS SALAZAR ALLEN. Department of Biosciences, Division of Genetics, P.O. Box 56, 00014 University of Helsinki, Finland, Department of Botany, University of Panama & Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Box 2072, Balboa, Republic of Panama. - Genetic differentiation among tropical Octoblepharum mosses.
Octoblepharum is a perennial, turf-forming moss genus
distributed throughout the tropics and subtropics. We have examined
the distribution of genetic variation revealed through randomly
amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers within and between three
Octoblepharum species, O. albidum, O. cocuiense
and O. pulvinatum, in Panama. We discovered that
Octoblepharum populations possess a considerable amount of
genetic variation. A plausible explanation for the observed pattern
of genetic variation is that each colony, which consists of one genet
(clone) in most cases, has often been founded sexually but has then
become an isolated, clonally propagating "minipopulation."
Genetically independent colonies inhabiting the same area form a more
loosely organized "metapopulation" rather than a regular,
tightly connected population.
Key words: Bryophyta, genetic variation, Octoblepharum, population genetics, RAPD