New Zealand Journal of Botany abstracts

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Systematics of Sphagnum section Sphagnum in New Zealand: a microsatellite-based analysis

E. F. Karlin

School of Theoretical & Applied Science
Ramapo College
Mahwah, New Jersey 17430, USA
ekarlin@ramapo.edu

S. B. Boles

A. J. Shaw

Department of Biology
Duke University
Durham, North Carolina 27708, USA

Abstract The systematics of Sphagnum section Sphagnum in New Zealand has been controversial. Two species are currently recognised in the New Zealand flora, S. cristatum and S. perichaetiale , but the presence of the widespread S. magellanicum has been debated. An analysis of 16 microsatellite loci shows that the gametophytes of Sphagnum perichaetiale appear to have one monoploid set of chromosomes (i.e., are haploid). Fixed heterozygosity at 10 loci indicates that S. cristatum is an alloploid. A red morphotype of S. cristatum , similar in macro-appearance to S. magellanicum , is not genetically differentiated from the more common brown-green morphotypes of S. cristatum . Although analysis of the microsatellite data for S. cristatum showed most of the genetic variation to be within populations, significant variation did occur among populations within regions and also between regions.

Keywords mosses; peat moss; Sphagnum ; S. cristatum ; S . magellanicum ; S. perichaetiale ; microsatellites; New Zealand; Australia; taxonomy; alloploid

B07039; Online publication date 6 June 2008; Received 27 August 2007; accepted 7 February 2008

New Zealand Journal of Botany, 2008, Vol. 46 : 105–118
0028–825X/08/4602–0105 © The Royal Society of New Zealand 2008

PDF file of entire paper: Print-quality (974K) | screen-quality (491K)

Supplemantary material: /publish/nzjb/2008/010sup.pdf  (331K)

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