Genetic Differentiation and Conservation of 14 Surviving Individuals of Euryodendron excelsum Endemic to China

Random amplification polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers were used to assess the genetic variations and the evolutionary relationships among all 14 individuals of a critically endangered Euryodendron excelsum (Theaceae) population distributed in Ba Jia Zhen, Yangchun, Guangdong, China. Twenty-three random primers detected 156 sites, out of which 95 (60.26%) were polymorphic loci. The number of the observed alleles was 1.6090, and the number of the effective alleles was 1.3471. Nei’s gene diversity was 0.1993, and Shannon index was 0.1534. A relatively high level of genetic variation was identified in E. excelsum. An unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean (UPGMA) tree established from Jaccard similarity coefficients suggested that 14 individuals were clustered into two subgroups and that the No. 2 plant was genetically distant from the rest of the individuals. The UPGMA clustering was also supported by a principle components analysis of RAPD phenotypic data. The management and conservation strategy of E. excelsum was proposed based on our results.