The methods proposed to identify prior- ity areas for conservation of the genetic resources of the argan tree are compared to those sometimes advo- cated in the case of reserve design, where one of the goals is to maximize species richness.
Two measures of differentiation can be compared for a single data set: one (GST) that makes use only of the allelic frequencies and the other (NST) for which similarities between the haplotypes are taken into account in addition.
European trees and shrubs studied had genetically divergent populations in Mediterranean regions, but the genetically most diverse populations were not located in the south but at intermediate latitudes, a likely consequence of the admixture of divergent lineages colonizing the continent from separate refugia.
It is illustrated that rear edge populations are often disproportionately important for the survival and evolution of biota, and some commonly recommended conservation practices might therefore be of little use or even counterproductive for Rear edge populations.
Interestingly, most of these patterns had been previously attributed to distinct selective processes, showing that taking into account the dynamic nature of a species range can lead to a paradigm shift in the authors' perception of evolutionary processes.
It is shown by spatially explicit simulations that massive introgression of neutral genes takes place during the invasion of an occupied territory if interbreeding is not severely prevented between the invading and the local species.
The largely complementary palaeobotanical and genetic data indicate that beech survived the last glacial period in multiple refuge areas and the modern genetic diversity was shaped over multiple glacial-interglacial cycles.
The mapped distribution of the haplotypes indicates the probable routes of postglacial recolonization followed by oak populations that had persisted in southern refugia, especially in the Iberian peninsula, Italy and the Balkans.
Reviewing studies of gene flow and population genetic structure in tropical rain forest trees and places them in ecological and biogeographic context finds significantly higher genetic differentiation in tropical trees.
It is shown that, at a given locus, there is a unique sample size per population which yields the smallest variance of GST, regardless of the number of populations studied, and the optimal sampling strategy for measuring GST is considered.