Using RAPD Analysis for in situ and ex situ conservation of Conocarpus erectus in the Central Region of Ghana

Conocarpus erectus is a woody shrub belonging to Combretaceae family. The species provides important ecological and socio-economic benefits to many organisms at coastal areas of Ghana. However, C. erectus is threatened to extinction from wildfires, sand winning, wood collections, farming, building, road construction and illegal mining, leaving just a few fragmented populations that require immediate protection. Little efforts by local communities, Ghana Forestry Commission, and non- governmental organizations to conserve C. erectus through in situ and ex situ methods have been challenging as they relied on general seed collections from fragmented populations without any genetic investigation about these populations. To propose scientific and effective in situ and ex situ conservation of C. erectus in the Central region of Ghana, investigating genetic diversity of the fragmented populations is needed in selecting best genotypes for seed collection. Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis was used. Fifteen primers were screened to ten which were used to produce clearly polymorphic bands with average number of 85.1 per primer. Analysis of Molecular Variance (AMOVA) identified 90% and 10% variance between and within populations respectively. An average number of 10.2 bands per primer was recorded with amplification products ranging between 200 and 2000 bp. PHIst of 0.90 implies significant degree of variability in C. erectus populations, therefore seeds should be collected from all fragmented populations to preserve more of the species’ unique characters for in situ and ex situ conservation of C. erectus.