Unlocking the geography of Azobe timber (Lophira alata): revealing spatial genetic structure beyond species boundaries.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The illegal trade of tropical timber constitutes a major and persistent environmental problem. Since the detection of fraud in trade documents remains challenging, forensic tools that can independently trace timber origin are needed. In this study, we evaluated the potential of the chloroplast genome (plastome) as a genetic tool to verify the claimed species and geographic origin of timber from Azobé (Lophira alata), an intensively exploited and threatened tropical tree species.

Results

We sampled 480 trees from Lophira alata and the congeneric species L. lanceolata across nine countries in Central and West Africa. Sampling included L. alata trees from 15 logging concessions in Cameroon, Gabon and the Republic of the Congo. DNA was isolated from the cambium or lea

SUBMITTER: Rocha Venancio Meyer-Sand B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11899005 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature