Abstract
The strategies for the conservation and sustainable use of forest genetic resources, which are essential for the future adaptation of forest species to changing environments, are also a source of valuable genetic resources for breeding and restoration activities. The first step to define and implement cost-effective strategies is to identify specific priority populations. Mexico, in spite of being characterized by high levels of tree species diversity, mostly lacks a combined strategy for the genetic conservation and use of forest genetic resources. The aims of this work are: (i) to identify areas for gene conservation, and (ii) to propose measures for the conservation and sustainable use of forest genetic resources of four pine species: Pinus greggii Engelm. ex Parl., Pinus oocarpa Schiede ex Schltdl., Pinus patula Schiede ex Schltdl. & Cham. and Pinus pseudostrobus Lindl. To do that, we use the existing information on the distribution, genetic variation and conservation and breeding efforts in Mexico. Overall, 51 areas for establishing genetic conservation units were prioritized and 6 genetic zones for the use of forest genetic resources in breeding and selection of forest reproductive material were identified. The current conservation efforts for the four priority Mexican pines should be improved to satisfy the needs of a national breeding and conservation network.
Highlights
Forests are essential for the maintenance of biological diversity in terrestrial ecosystems and provide a wide range of goods and services, including genetic resources that are indispensable and constitute a unique and irreplaceable reserve for the future
We considered a set of minimum requirements for defining Gene Conservation Units (GCUs)
We identified a total of 51 areas for establishing GCUs for the target species (Figure 2 and Supplemetary Materials Table S4): 16 for P. pseudostrobus, 23 for P. oocarpa, 8 for P. patula and 4 for
Summary
Forests are essential for the maintenance of biological diversity in terrestrial ecosystems and provide a wide range of goods and services, including genetic resources that are indispensable and constitute a unique and irreplaceable reserve for the future. Actions have been requested at the global scale [1] for the conservation and sustainable use of forest genetic resources. Forest tree species are long lived and widely distributed, with a typically low degree of domestication and remarkable phenotypic and genetic differences in important traits among populations, despite high levels of gene flow [2]. These differences are essential both for breeding, i.e., provenances or seed sources to be used for plantations [3], and for conservation programs whose main objective is intra-specific genetic diversity [4]. Conservation and a sustainable use of forest genetic resources have not always been considered as part of the same strategy [5]
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