By Animal, Water, or Wind: Can Dispersal Mode Predict Genetic Connectivity in Riverine Plant Species?

ABSTRACT: Seed dispersal is crucial to gene flow among plant populations. Although the effects of geographic distance and barriers to gene flow are well studied in many systems, it is unclear how seed dispersal mediates gene flow in conjunction with interacting effects of geographic distance and barriers. To test whether distinct seed dispersal modes (i.e., hydrochory, anemochory, and zoochory) have a consistent effect on the level of genetic connectivity (i.e., gene flow) among populations of riverine plant species, we used unlinked single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) for eight co-distributed plant species sampled across the Rio Branco, a putative biogeographic barrier in the Amazon basin. We found that animal-dispersed plant species exhibited higher levels of genetic diversity and lack of inbre

SUBMITTER: Nazareno AG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7907645 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature