Isozyme Variation in Four Natural Populations of Cedrus libani A.Rich. in Turkey

Genetic variation in 4 natural populations of Cedrus libani A.Rich. was determined using isoenzyme analyses. Isozymes from 12 enzyme systems extracted from haploid female gametophytes of the seeds were separated by horizontal starch gel electrophoresis. In the 12 enzyme systems, 16 loci and 37 alleles were observed. Average proportion of polymorphic loci for the populations ranged from 43.8% to 62.5%. The average number of alleles per locus per population was estimated as 2.0. Mean estimated expected-heterozygosity (He) of the populations was 0.168. The level of gene flow (Nm) was 12.7 per generation. A very high proportion of genetic variation was within populations (98.07%). Nei’s genetic distance coefficient ranged from 0.003 to 0.008 among all possible population pairs. The mean value of Nei’s genetic distance (0.005) confirmed the hypothesis that variation among the populations is low.