Résumé
Urban agroforestry is largely advocated, as trees in the city provide a number of ecosystem services. In Africa, one of the world’s fastest urbanizing regions, they contribute particularly to food production and to maintain the quality of the environment. Nevertheless, little is known on the interplay between management practices and levels of genetic diversity of urban trees. Our model species, Dacryodes edulis (G. Don) HJ Lam, is a widespread indigenous fruit tree in Central Africa. In Cameroon, it is commonly found in different agroforestry systems (home gardens, agroforests), from the capital Yaoundé to peri-urban and rural areas. This study characterizes tree management practices along an urbanization gradient and the associated distribution of genetic diversity. Using 13 nuclear microsatellites markers and samples from nine study sites along the gradient (three rural villages, three peri-urban towns and three Yaoundé district), we will compare management practices and their effect on the intraspecific genetic diversity. We hypothesize that the genetic diversity could be higher in Yaoundé, with planting material coming from different regions as people settle. This intraspecific diversity could thus be related to seed sourcing strategies still being the dominant planting strategy for this cross-pollinated species. The results will help understand the distribution of cultivated tree genetic diversity, in the context of ongoing domestication of tropical perennial species