Genetic variation in Prosopis ferox (Mimosaceae)

Abstract

Prosopis ferox (Mimosaceae) is a spiny bush or tree, distributed in southern Bolivia and northwestern Argentina. Populations of P. ferox from Jujuy grow at high elevations (2400 to 3700 m). There is in this species a great morphological variability, especially in fruit dimensions and the number of seeds per fruit. These characteristics are important because of its use as forage. With the aim of analyzing the genetic variability among and within  populations, a seed protein electrophoretic study of different accessions from the province of Jujuy was performed. The polipeptidic patterns obtained by SDS-PAGE showed a total of 26 bands. The analyzed populations could be distinguished by their protein profiles, and intrapopulation variability (polymorphism) was found in some of them, while others were monomorphic. The polymorphism indexes found in  P. ferox were comparable to those previously found in P. ruscifolia. The genetic variability found among populations of P. ferox, using seed proteins analysis, suggests the existence of ecotypes.