Genetic and morphological variation in natural teak (Tectona grandis) populations of the Western Ghats in Southern India

Abstract

Teak (Tectona grandis L.f.) is a popular hardwood species native to South and South-East Asia. The possible association of amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) marker with morphological variables of eleven important characters viz. girth at breast height (GBH), height of tree, bole height, branch knots, presence of fluting, spiral stem, leaf hair, leaf length/breadth ratio, branching pattern, bark colour and petiole shape for nine natural populations comprising 180 genotypes of teak (9 populations × 20 trees). The phenogram constructed using Euclidean distances for the eleven morphological characters showed that the populations were not grouped according to their geographical origin. The Mantel’s test for pairwise correlation between Euclidean distances of different morphological variables and genetic distances from AFLP data revealed that only petiole character (r =0.269; p =0.046) and height of tree (r =0.200; p =0.001) were significantly correlated with that of AFLP data matrix. The nine populations in this study covered a geographic area of about 1000 km stretch along the Western Ghat of South India. A test of correlation between genetic and geographic distance matrices revealed a significant positive correlation (r =0.475; p =0.009). The lack of perfect congruence between morphological and molecular data except for geographic distance, tree height and petiole character suggested that the morphological system might be useful for the morphotypes management but not appropriate to study the genetic structure of the teak populations.

Keywords

AFLP / genetic / teak / morphology / Tectona grandis

References

[1] Assogbadjo AE, Kyndt T, Sinsin B, Gheysen G, Van damme P. Patterns of genetic and morphometric diversity in Baobab (Adansonia digitata) populations across different climatic zones of Benin (West Africa). Ann Botany, 2006, 97: 819-830.

[2] Bagchi SK. Correlation of age element in Tectona grandis Linn. f. Indian For, 1999, 125: 522-525.

[3] Bedell PE. Preliminary observations on the variability of teak in India. Indian For, 1989, 115: 72-73.

[4] Dilip Kumar PJ. Bhat KM, Nair KKN, Bhat K V, Muralidharan E M, Sharma JK. Teak in Karnataka state, India. Quality timber products of teak from sustainable forest management. 2005, Yokohama: Kerala Forest Research Institute, India and International Tropical Timber Organization, 45 46

[5] Doyle JJ, Doyle J. Isolation of plant DNA from fresh tissue. Focus, 1990, 12: 13-15.

[6] Ehara H, Kosaka S, Shimura N, Matoyoma D, Morita O, Mizota C, Naito H, Susanto S, Bintoro MH, Yamamoto Y. Kainuma K, Okazaki M, Toyada Y, Cecil JE. Genetic variation of sago palm (Metroxylon sagu Rottb.) in the Malay Archipelago. New frontiers of sago palm studies. 2002, Tokyo: Universal Academy Press, 93 100

[7] Gunaga RP, Vasudevan R. Genetic variation for fruiting phenology in teak clones among provenances of Karnataka (Tectona grandis L.f). Indian J Fores, 2003, 25: 215-220.

[8] Hush B, Miller CI, Beers TW. Forest Mensuration. 1972, New York: The Ronald Press Company

[9] Kala JC, Kumaravelu G, Krishnakumar N. Bhat KM, Nair KKN, Bhat K V, Muralidharan E M, Sharma JK. Status report of teak in Tamil Nadu, India. Quality timber products of teak from sustainable forest management. 2005, Yokohama: Kerala Forest Research Institute, India and International Tropical Timber Organization, 47 53

[10] Kaosa-ard A. Teak international provenance trials I. Growth and stem quality. Proceedings “50th Year of Huay Tak Teak Plantation: Teak Seminar”, 1993 113 129

[11] Katwal RPS. Bhat KM, Nair KKN, Bhat K V, Muralidharan E M, Sharma JK. Teak in India: status prospects and perspectives. Quality timber products of teak from sustainable forest management. 2005, Yokohama: Kerala Forest Research Institute, India and International Tropical Timber Organization, 1 17

[12] Keiding H, Wellendorf H, Lauridsen EB. Evaluation of an international teak provenance trials. Danida Forest Seed Centre, 1986 81.

[13] Kjaer A, Barfod AS, Asmussen CB, Seberg O. Okazaki K, Toyada M, Cecil J E. Genetic and morphological variation in the sago palm Metroxylon sagu Rottb. (Arecaceae) in Papua New Guinea. New frontiers of sago palm studies. 2002, Tokyo: Universal Academy Press, 100 101

[14] Kjaer ED, Seigismund HR, Suangtho V. A multivariate study on genetic variation of teak (Tectona grandis. L.). Silvae Genet, 1996, 45: 361-368.

[15] Kumar A, Gogate MG, Sharma R, Mandal AK. Genetic evaluation of teak clones of Allapali region, Maharashtra. Indian For, 1997, 123: 187-189.

[16] Mantel NA. The detection of disease clustering and a generalized regression approach. Cancer Res, 1967, 27: 209-220.

[17] Mathew J. Variation for germination and early seedling vigour among Half Sib Families of Teak (Tectona grandis L.f.) Clones of Karnataka. 2001, Sirsi, Karnataka: College of Forestry, University of Agricultural Sciences, 102.

[18] Mathew J, Vasudeva R. Clonal variation for seed germination in teak (Tectona grandis L.f.). Curr Sci, 2005, 84: 1133-1136.

[19] Miller MP. A Windows program for the analysis of allozyme and molecular population genetic data (TFPGA), 1997

[20] Nei M. Estimation of average heterozygosity and genetic distance from a small number of individuals. Genetics, 1978, 89: 583-590.

[21] Peakall R, Smouse PE. GENALEX 6: genetic analysis in Excel. Population genetic software for teaching and research. Mol Ecol Notes, 2006, 6: 288-295.

[22] Prabhu NH. Bhat KM, Nair KKN, Bhat K V, Muralidharan E M, Sharma JK. Teak in Kerala: past present and future. Quality timber products of teak from sustainable forest management. 2005, Yokohama: Kerala Forest Research Institute, India and International Tropical Timber Organization, 83 92

[23] Rolf J. NTSYS-pc, Numerical Taxonomy and Multivariate Analysis System, Version.2.1. 2000, New York: Exeter

[24] Sneath PHA, Sokal RR. Numerical taxonomy. 1973, San Francisco California: W.H. Freeman

[25] Sreekanth PM, Balasundaran M, Nazeem PA, Suma TB. Genetic diversity of nine natural Tectona grandis Lf populations of the Western Ghats in Southern India. Conserv Genet, 2012, 13: 1409-1419.

[26] Sreekanth PM, Balasundaran M. AFLP diversity of teak clonal seed orchard. Indian J Genet Plant Breed, 2012, 4: 484-487.

[27] Sreekumar VB, Binoy AM, Sarah TG. Genetic and morphological variation in breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis (Park.) Fosberg) in the Western Ghats of India using AFLP. Genet Resour Crop Ev, 2007, 54: 1659-1665.

[28] Sreekumar VB, Renuka C, Suma TB, Balasundaran M. Taxonomic reconsideration of Calamus rivalis Thw. ex Trim. and C. metzianus Schlecht (Arecaceae) through morphometric and molecular analyses. Bot Stud, 2006, 47: 443-452.

[29] Suri SK. Analytical study of teak provenance tests in North Raipur division of Madhya Pradesh. Indian For, 1984, 110: 345-363.

[30] Vasudeva R, Gunaga RP, Hanumantha M. Implication of variation in reproductive traits among teak clones to management and genetics of seed orchards. Advances in Forestry Research, 2001, 24: 120-135.

[31] Vos P, Hogers R, Bleeker M, Reijans M, Vande Lee T, Hornes M, Frijters A, Pot J, Peleman J, Kuiper M, Zabeau M. AFLP: a new technique for DNA fingerprinting. Nucleic Acids Res, 1995, 23: 4407-4414.

[32] Wellendorf H, Kaosa-ard A. Teak improvement strategy in Thailand, 1988 43.