FERTILITY VARIATION AND ITS CONSEQUENCES ON GENE DIVERSITY IN THE CONSERVATION OF TURKISH DOG ROSE (Rosa canina L.)

Average numbers of fruits (female), stamens (male), and filled seeds were assessed from 30 individuals of 12 dog rose (Rosa canina L.) populations in Turkey. Fertility variation and gene diversity (effective number) were estimated based on the assessments. Average numbers of fruits and stamens were 158 (98-233) and 3350 (1827-5126), respectively, in the entire populations. Average number of filled seeds was 13 per fruit. The number of filled seeds per individual was 2412, varying from 1170 to 4074. Coefficient of variation (CV) of flower production was generally higher than that of filled seeds, but there was a high correlation between CVs for the number of filled seeds and those for the female and male flower production. Fertility variation (estimated by sibling coefficient, Psi) was 2.31 for female flower, 2.38 for male flower, and 2.33 for total gene pool. The value of Psi was 3.02 for the number of filled seeds in the total populations. Effective number (N(p)) was lower than half of census number (N) in the pooled population for all traits studied, meaning that loss of gene diversity (=0.5/N(p)) would be about 5%.