Isozyme Variation in Tropical Trees: Procedures and Preliminary Results

Abstract

Genetic variation in 29 woody plant taxa common to Barro Colorado Island, Republic of Panama, was surveyed by starch gel electrophoresis. Leaf samples obtained from approximately 50 individuals were collected over several km of trials on the island, vacuum-dried within 6 hr of collection, and transported to Lawrence, Kansas, USA, for electrophoretic analysis. The 20 enzyme systems used produced an average of 26 banding zones (range 14-41) per taxon, of which 28 percent (range 0-54%) were polymorphic. Mean heterozygosity per species (mean = 0.111, range 0.000-0.216) was similar to the mean reported for 74 other dicotyledonous species but was somewhat less than that observed for other woody plants, mostly conifers. These results indicate that the techniques described herein would allow the application of genetic analyses to several questions of interest to tropical biologists.