Research Interest/Project:
Population genetics and phylogeny of the Malesian palm genus Johannesteijsmannia H.E. Moore (Palmae)

The genus Johannesteijsmannia is composed of four species of forest understorey palms, viz., Johannesteijsmannia altifrons, Johannesteijsmannia lanceolata, Johannesteijsmannia magnifica and Johannesteijsmannia perakensis. Johannesteijsmannia altifrons, which is the most widely distributed congener, occurs in southern Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, western Sarawak, western Kalimantan and Sumatra whereas the other three are endemic to Peninsular Malaysia. The four species are under threat due to the loss of habitat by logging, deforestation, over-collection of leaves and seeds. The condition has become worse because all four species are sensitive to forest disturbance and are severely threatened by forest clearance.

Consequently, conservation of the four species should be carried out before it is too late. One of the more efficient strategies to conserve the plants properly is to understand the genetic variations within and among populations. Hence, I am interested to investigate the genetic variation between and within populations of each species using morphological and molecular data and also to identify the genetically unique populations for conservation in situ and ex situ.

The evolutionary history and distribution of the four Johannesteijsmannia species exhibit an interesting pattern because one species is widespread and the other three species are endemic to Peninsular Malaysia. Of the three species, Johannesteijsmannia perakensis is the only species with a trunk, although the reason for this phenomenon is not known. It would also be interesting to confirm whether all the Johannesteijsmannia species are monophyletic. As a result, I am also interested to study the phylogeny of the Johannesteijsmannia species with its sister group Licuala and selected taxa from the same subfamily Coryphoideae. Apart from that, I would like to test the hypothesis of Dransfield (1972) that there are four putative species by phenetic analysis using molecular data.

We hope that the data obtained from this study will provide some useful information to: i. elucidate the systematics of this genus, i.e., determine the phylogenetic relationships of the taxa mentioned, ii. effectively conserve and manage the species for sustainable exploitation.

Publications:

Conference:

Look, S.L., Kumar, P.P., Saw, L.G., Tan, H.T.W. 2003. Population genetics and phylogeny of the Malesian palm genus Johannesteijsmannia H.E.Moore (Palmae). In Programme Book of the ARCBC Regional Research Grant Conference, 1–4 December 2003, Bangkok, Thailand. ASEAN Regional Centre for Biodiversity Conservation. p. 16.

Teaching experience:

Part-time teaching assistant, Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, assisted in undergraduate courses (e.g. Molecular Genetics and Economic Botany)