2nd Annual Academic Symposium - Alexander Chatham

The unique geographical features surrounding the Pepeopae bog on the island of Molokai provide the ideal location to study population diversity among plant specimens found in contrasting habitats. A study was conducted using DNA from bog and nearby cloud forest populations to examine population genetic diversity and the potential for breeding between the two populations. Four different primers were used to amplify inter-simple sequence repeats (ISSR), only one of which provided scorable bands. A UPGMA dendrogram based on Jaccard’s Coefficient did not show discernable differences between the two populations. An analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) was also performed. Data from the combined populations contained 18 usable loci. Both cloud forest and bog populations demonstrated 10 polymorphic loci. Of total variation, 2.68% occurred between the two populations and 97.32% arose from differences within populations. This data suggests that gene exchange occurs between the two populations.