ABSTRACT - The restoration of riparian forests with seedlings that have as much genetic diversity as possible is very important for the conservation of species. Thus, the objectives of this study were to characterize genetically, by RAPD markers, individuals of Spondias lutea L., and to elaborate strategies of seed production for restoration of riparian forest. The study was conducted in a riparian forest in the Low San Francisco area in Sergipe State, Brazil, where leaves of 17 individuals were collected for RAPD analysis. The DNA extraction was performed with CTAB 2% buffer and for the polymorphism generation 17 primers were used. We used a binary matrix constructed with presence (1) and absence (0) of bands in order to obtain the genetic similarity estimates. The simplified representation of the similarities was made by the UPGMA grouping method and stability of groupings was tested by bootstrap analysis. For the visualization of the divergence among individuals, we used the Tocher grouping method. The genetic distance matrix was compared with the matrix of geographical distance by Mantel’s test, in order to determine whether a correlation exists between them. The mean genetic similarity between individuals was 46,8%, with the similarity coefficients ranging from 21 to 78%. There was no association between genetic and geographical distances (r = 0.08). Five groups were formed by the Tocher grouping method. The minimum value of calculated similarity was 91%. Thus, the analyzed individuals were considered divergent and can be used as tree-seeds in seed production programs to restore riparian forests.
Seed yield; Forest fragmentation; Riparian forest restoration
