The seeds of invasion: enhanced germination in invasive European populations of black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia L.) compared to native American populations.

Local adaptation and the evolution of phenotypic plasticity may facilitate biological invasions. Both processes can enhance germination and seedling recruitment, which are crucial life-history traits for plants. The rate, timing and speed of germination have recently been documented as playing a major role during the invasion process.

Towards a Joint International Database: Alignment of SSR Marker Data for European Collections of Cherry Germplasm.

The objective of our study was the alignment of microsatellite or simple sequence repeat (SSR) marker data across germplasm collections of cherry within Europe. Through the European Cooperative program for Plant Genetic Resources ECPGR, a number of European germplasm collections had previously been analysed using standard sets of SSR loci. However, until now these datasets remained unaligned.

A draft genome of sweet cherry (Prunus avium L.) reveals genome-wide and local effects of domestication.

Sweet cherry (Prunus avium L.) trees are both economically important fruit crops but also important components of natural forest ecosystems in Europe, Asia and Africa. Wild and domesticated trees currently coexist in the same geographic areas with important questions arising on their historical relationships.

A few north Appalachian populations are the source of European black locust.

The role of evolution in biological invasion studies is often overlooked. In order to evaluate the evolutionary mechanisms behind invasiveness, it is crucial to identify the source populations of the introduction. Studies in population genetics were carried out on L.

Dealing with paralogy in RADseq data: in silico detection and single nucleotide polymorphism validation in L.

The RADseq technology allows researchers to efficiently develop thousands of polymorphic loci across multiple individuals with little or no prior information on the genome. However, many questions remain about the biases inherent to this technology. Notably, sequence misalignments arising from paralogy may affect the development of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers and the estimation of genetic diversity.