Intraspecific Variation in Population Gene Diversity and Effective Population Size Correlates with the Mating System in Plants

Published data on allele frequencies at isozyme loci in inbreeding and outbreeding plant species were analyzed to examine intraspecific variation in gene diversity and effective population size (Ne). Compared with outbreeders, inbreeding species showed markedly greater variation among populations in average values of Nei's gene diversity statistic. Effective population size was estimated by assuming that the variation observed at isozyme loci is selectively neutral. Inbreeding species showed greater levels of variation in Ne than did outbreeders, although the upper range of Ne was similar in the two classes of species. The results suggest that there may be considerable genetic variation and potential for evolutionary change in some but not all populations of inbreeders. Moreover, these findings are important with respect to the conservation of genetic resources. In particular, that the amount of intraspecific variation in population genetic diversity and Ne differs between inbreeding and outbreeding species should be taken into account in sampling efforts designed to optimize the diversity of germplasm collections.