Genetic Variability in Natural Populations of Cassia grandis L. F.

ABSTRACT The design of strategies for genetic conservation requires knowledge of the ecologic and genetics aspects of the target species populations. This work aimed to characterize genetically natural populations of Cassia grandis L. F. using isozymes. Genetic diversity was analyzed by allele frequencies ( P ^ i j ) and the following diversity indexes: observed ( H ^ e ) and expected ( H ^ e )average heterozygosity, average number of alleles per locus ( A ^ ) and percentage of polymorphic loci ( P ^); and the genetic structure of populations by Wright's statistics. We estimated gene flow, population effective size and the minimum viable population in the short and long time. The observed results conclude that the studied populations of C. grandis are structured, which can be demonstrated by observation of rare and exclusive alleles, and high genetic diversity among them.