Abstract
The genetic relatedness of selected mother trees of Shorea leprosula (24 trees) and Dipterocarpus cornutus (10 trees) was investigated using four simple sequence repeats (SSRs) loci in two seed production areas, a 1 ha seed stand of S. leprosula and a 0.9 ha seed stand of D. cornutus in Compartment 17, Labis Forest Reserve, Segamat, Johor. A total of 24 and 32 saplings in the vicinity of selected mother trees of S. leprosula and D. cornutus, respectively was collected for parentage analysis. Based on SSR polymorphisms, four mother trees of S. leprosula (i.e. SM1, SM9, SM15 and SM21) and three mother trees of D. cornutus (i.e. DM2 or DM3, DM5 and DM8), are not closely related and therefore could be used as potential seed sources for an advanced breeding program. The mean genetic identity of the S. leprosula and D. cornutus mother trees was low (0.471 and 0.557, respectively). Low spatial genetic structure within the population of mother trees was detected in S. leprosula and D. cornutus. This implies that extensive gene flow occurred in these species within the seed production areas. This is validated in the present study for D. cornutus where only about 13.3% of alleles detected in saplings seemed to have originated from adult trees outside the forest seed production area (SPA).
