Ji-Eun Lim1P, Homervergel G. Ong2,3, Woo-Ho Kim1, Tae-Hun Kim1, Soo-Yeoun Song1,

Young-Dong Kim1,2

1Department of Life Sciences, Hallym University, Chuncheon; 2Multidisciplinary Genome Institute, Hallym University, Chuncheon; 3On Saengmul Research Institute, Inc., Chuncheon

Arisaema takesimense Nakai is a perennial herb in the Araceae, and is an endemic species to the Korean Peninsula, distributed in moist mountainous habitats on Ulleung Island. This species is currently classified as Least Concern (LC) by the Ministry of Environment of Korea and Near Threatened (NT) by the Korea Forest Service, indicating the need for a re-evaluation of its conservation status based on improved understanding of ecological conditions and genetic characteristics. In addition, A. takesimense has been treated as a synonym of its closely related taxon, A. serratum (Thunb.) Schott, resulting in ongoing taxonomic ambiguity. This study was conducted with two objectives: (1) to establish conservation strategies for A. takesimense through an assessment of its current distribution and population genomic structure, and (2) to investigate the genetic relationships between populations of A. takesimense on Ulleung Island and populations of A. serratum from the Korean mainland and Jeju Island. First, a total of 54 individuals from five populations on Ulleung Island were analyzed using the 3RAD-Seq approach, yielding 3,753 SNPs. Genetic diversity analysis showed that the mean expected heterozygosity (He) was 0.232 and the mean observed heterozygosity (Ho) was 0.208. The mean inbreeding coefficient (F) was 0.072, showing weakly positive values across all populations. AMOVA results indicated that genetic differentiation among populations accounted for only 1% of the total genetic variation, whereas variation among individuals (43%) and within individuals (56%) constituted the majority. PCoA and STRUCTURE analyses revealed no clear population clustering, indicating that populations of A. takesimense on Ulleung Island exhibit a genetically homogeneous structure. To further examine genetic relationships between A. takesimense and A. serratum, an additional dataset including 44 individuals from four populations of A. serratum was analyzed, resulting in a total of 2,972 SNPs. Pairwise FST analysis revealed that the Jeju A. serratum populations are more genetically similar to A. takesimense than to their inland counterparts, with moderate differentiation observed between the two groups. These results provide fundamental data for re-evaluating the conservation status of A. takesimense, establishing effective conservation and genetic diversity management strategies, and for reassessing its taxonomic position.