Genome-environment associations along elevation gradients in two snowbed species of the North-Eastern Calcareous Alps.

Background: Anthropogenic climate change leads to increasing temperatures and altered precipitation and snowmelt patterns, especially in alpine ecosystems. To understand species' responses to climate change, assessment of genetic structure and diversity is crucial as the basis for the evaluation of migration patterns, genetic adaptation potential as well as the identification of adaptive alleles.

Results: We studied genetic structure, diversity and genome-environment associations of two snowbed species endemic to the Eastern Alps with a large elevational range, Achillea clusiana Tausch and Campanula pulla L.

Genotyping-by-sequencing reveals range expansion of Adonis vernalis (Ranunculaceae) from Southeastern Europe into the zonal Euro-Siberian steppe.

The Euro-Siberian steppe flora consists of warm- and cold-adapted species, which may have responded differently to Pleistocene glacials and interglacials. Genotyping-by-sequencing individuals from across the distribution range of the pheasant's eye (Adonis vernalis), we aimed to gain insight into steppe florogenesis based on the species' evolutionary history. Although the primary area of origin of the species group comprising A.

The phylogeographic history of Krascheninnikovia reflects the development of dry steppes and semi-deserts in Eurasia.

Constituting one of Earth's major biomes, steppes are characterised by naturally treeless extra-tropical vegetation. The formation of the Eurasian steppe belt, the largest steppe region in the world, began in Central Asia during the Neogene. In the glacial stages of the Pleistocene, steppe displaced forest vegetation, which in turn recolonised the area during the warmer interglacial periods, thus affecting the distribution of plants adapted to these habitats.

Genetic variation in an ephemeral mudflat species: The role of the soil seed bank and dispersal in river and secondary anthropogenic habitats.

Many ephemeral mudflat species, which rely on a soil seed bank to build up the next generation, are endangered in their natural habitat due to the widespread regulation of rivers. The aim of the present study was to elucidate the role of the soil seed bank and dispersal for the maintenance of genetic diversity in populations of near-natural river habitats and anthropogenic habitats created by traditional fish farming practices using as a model. Using microsatellite markers, we found no difference in genetic diversity levels between soil seed bank and above-ground population and only moderate differentiation between the two fractions.

Isolation and characterization of microsatellite markers for (Asteraceae) and close relatives.

Premise Of The Study: We developed microsatellite markers to study clonal growth and interspecific hybridization in the Patagonian and subantarctic plant (Asteraceae) and its closest relatives.

Methods And Results: We developed primers for microsatellite loci from 454 sequence reads of genomic DNA of . We tested them on individuals of , , , , and .