Recently different studies have formalized the way in which it is possible to obtain coancestry coefficients from molecular information (Caballero and Toro 2002; Eding and Meuwissen 2001) by applying Malécot’s (1948) definition of kinship to marker genes, though referring it to identity-by-state instead of identity-by-descent (Caballero and Toro 2002). The molecular coancestry between two indiv...

The influence of geographic range on species persistence has long been of interest and there is a need for a better understanding of the genetic consequences for species with restricted distributions, particularly with the increasing rate of global species extinctions. However, the genetic effects of restricted range are often confounded by the impacts of population distribution. We compared ch...

1 Physiological and Molecular Plant Pathology Evaluation of genetic diversity in Magnaporthegrisea populations adapted to finger millet using simple sequence repeats (SSRs) markers T. Kiran Babu, Rajan Sharma, H.D. Upadhyaya, P.N. Reddy, S. Deshpande, S. Senthilvel, N.D.R.K. Sarma, R.P. Thakur Acharya N. G. Ranga Agricultural University (ANGRAU), Rajendranagar, Hyderabad 500030, Andhra Pradesh,...

DNA sequence variation at a mitochondrial and a nuclear intron locus was surveyed within and among multiple populations of the inland silverside (Menidia beryllina) from the southeastern United States and revealed discordant phylogenetic patterns but similar patterns of population genetic variation across nuclear and mitochondrial loci. Mitochondrial variation was geographically structured, wit...

There is large variation in the genetic diversity among the African cattle (MNA = 3.73-7.40; AE = 1.92-3.91; HE = 0.478-0.744). In pooled geographic region samples, diversity is highest in the North African Bos taurus and it is lowest in the western part of the continent. Genetic structure analysis support isolation by distance in all, but the Southern African region, with extensive gene flow b...

The lifetime fitnesses of individuals comprising a population determine its numerical dynamics, and genetic variation in fitness results in evolutionary change. This dual importance of individual fitness is well understood, but empirical fitness records generally violate the assumptions of standard statistical approaches. This problem has undermined comprehensive study of fitness and impeded em...

Theory suggests that heterogeneous environments should maintain more genetic variation within populations than homogeneous environments, yet experimental evidence for this effect in quantitative traits has been inconsistent. To examine the effect of heterogeneity on quantitative genetic variation, we maintained replicate populations of Drosophila melanogaster under treatments with constant temp...

A population can adapt to a rapid environmental change or habitat expansion in two ways. It may adapt either through new beneficial mutations that subsequently sweep through the population or by using alleles from the standing genetic variation. We use diffusion theory to calculate the probabilities for selective adaptations and find a large increase in the fixation probability for weak substit...

Predicting the accuracy of estimated genomic values using genome-wide marker information is an important step in designing training populations. Currently, different deterministic equations are available to predict accuracy within populations, but not for multipopulation scenarios where data from multiple breeds, lines or environments are combined. Therefore, our objective was to develop and va...

Habitat fragmentation and a decrease in population size may lead to a loss in population genetic diversity. For the first time, the reduction in genetic diversity in the northernmost limit of natural occurence (southeastern Brazil) of Araucaria angustifolia in comparison with populations in the main area of the species continuous natural distribution (southern Brazil), was tested. The 673 AFLPs...