GENETIC-VARIATION ESTIMATED IN 3 SHOREA SPECIES BY THE RAPD ANALYSIS

Three species of Shorea (S. leprosula, S. acuminata and S. cursitii) w ere collected from a natural forest reserve of Malaysia and analyzed f or genetic variation using the technique of random amplification of po lymorphic DNA (RAPD) by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The avera ge number of nucleotide substitutions was estimated. The nucleotide di versities within species were very similar and larger than those found in Drosophila melanogaster. The nucleotide divergences between these species are about 1.5 times the nucleotide diversities within the spec ies, indicating that these species diverged from a common ancestor rel atively recently.