The mating system of two populations of Eschweilera ovata was studied by allozymes analysis of progeny arrays using the mixed-mating model and correlated mating model. Deviations from mixed-mating model were evident from differences in pollen and ovule allele frequencies and allele frequency heterogeneity of pollen pools that fertilized the different trees. The multilocus outcrossing rate was high in both Camarugipe (t m=0.999±0.004) and Itaparica populations (t m=0.985±0.023). The high variation in individual outcrossing rate (t ranged from 0.320 to 1.000) indicated that the species is not self-incompatible. Positive differences and significantly different from zero between multilocus and single locus outcrossing rate were detected, indicating biparental inbreeding in both Camarugipe (t m - t s=0.066±0.014) and Itaparica populations (t m - t s=0.073±0.016) and possible spatial genetic structuring. Higher values of correlated mating were detected in the populations (Camarugipe, r p=0.577±0.088; Itaparica r p=0.423±0.070), showing that the families consisted mainly of half-sib and full-sib mixtures. The coancestry coefficient within families from both populations (Camarugipe, thetaxy=0.211; Itaparica thetaxy=0.191) was higher than the expected in half-sib families (0.125). The results were discussed from the point of view of sampling for improvement, genetic conservation and seed collection aiming at environmental recovery.
Eschweilera ovata; tropical tree species; outcrossing rate; biparental inbreeding; coancestry; effective variance size
