Genetic structure of the polymorphic metrosideros (Myrtaceae) complex in the Hwaiian islands using nuclear microsatellite data.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Five species of Metrosideros (Myrtaceae) are recognized in the Hawaiian Islands, including the widespread M. polymorpha, and are characterized by a multitude of distinctive, yet overlapping, habit, ecological, and morphological forms. It remains unclear, despite several previous studies, whether the morphological variation within Hawaiian Metrosideros is due to hybridization, genetic polymorphism, phenotypic plasticity, or some combination of these processes. The Hawaiian Metrosideros complex has become a model system to study ecology and evolution; however this is the first study to use microsatellite data for addressing inter-island patterns of variation from across the Hawaiian Islands.

Methodology/principal findings

Ten nuclear microsatellite loci were genotyp

SUBMITTER: Harbaugh DT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2649539 | biostudies-literature | 2009

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature