近日，中科院西双版纳热带植物园的研究人员发现，西双版纳地区传统少数民族生活的庭院生态系统有效保存了野生物种的遗传多样性。相关研究已在线发表在国际期刊《资源保护遗传学》上。
在西双版纳地区少数民族的生活中，庭院作为一种传统的混农林生态系统具有悠久的历史。当地的少数民族在生产劳作的过程中，有意识地将一些有用的野生植物种子、幼苗引入到庭院中栽培，并加以管理，从而保存了丰富的植物物种。
例如，被当地人称作臭菜的羽叶金合欢是西双版纳及邻近地区少数民族普遍栽培的一种野生蔬菜，广泛种植于庭院、绿篱、田地等生态系统中，栽培历史悠久。近年来，该地区大量的森林砍伐、橡胶种植对臭菜的自然居群造成严重的破坏，极大影响了野生臭菜的生存。
该园植物系统发育与保护生物学研究课题组采用SSR分子标记，对分布于西双版纳地区7个村寨的羽叶金合欢的庭院栽培居群和对应采集来源地的野生居群，进行了遗传多样性及居群遗传结构的分析。
研究发现，庭院中栽培的居群保存了野生居群90%的遗传变异。在每一个调查点，栽培居群与野生居群无论在等位基因的多态性还是在杂合度方面都没有显著差异，两者也没有显著的遗传分化，表明庭院生态系统有效地保存了该物种的遗传多样性。
同时，该研究还细致地从遗传多样性的角度，揭示了少数民族的庭院文化与植物遗传资源保护之间的关系。研究人员认为，利用传统知识和文化信仰来增强对植物多样性的保护，也是对野生植物资源进行保护的合理途径之一。(生物谷：Bioon.com)
doi:10.1007/s10592-012-0338-x
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Traditional home-garden conserving genetic diversity: a case study of Acacia pennata in southwest China
Jie Gao, Tianhua He and Qiao-Ming Li
Conserving biodiversity in human-dominated systems requires research into mechanisms that can maintain biodiversity in fragmented landscapes. Home-garden as traditional agroforestry system in many regions has shown great value in maintaining a wide range of species. Here we show that home-garden populations are also capable of maintaining high level of genetic variation. Using six polymorphic microsatellite DNA markers, we have genotyped 260 individuals of Acacia pennata, a popular wild vegetable in the tropical region of southeast Asia. Samples were collected from home-gardens and wild populations in Xishuangbanna, southwest China. Microsatellite DNA diversity in planted populations were compared with that in geographically nearby wild populations with similar population size. Over 90 % of microsatellite genetic variation in wild populations was also present in planted populations. Pairwise comparison of planted and adjacent wild population showed no significant difference in allelic diversity and heterozygosity. Analysis revealed no significant genetic differences between wild and planted populations, while four home-garden populations showed sign of bottleneck. We conclude that home-gardens show great promise in maintaining genetic diversity, and that these managed patches could be of significant conservation value in tropical regions.
