Partitioning genetic and species diversity refines our understanding of species-genetic diversity relationships

Disentangling the origin of species-genetic diversity correlations (SGDCs) is a challenging task that provides insight into the way that neutral and adaptive processes influence diversity at multiple levels. Genetic and species diversity are comprised by components that respond differently to the same ecological processes. Thus, it can be useful to partition species and genetic diversity into their different components to infer the mechanisms behind SGDCs. In this study, we applied such an approach using a high-elevation Andean wetland system, where previous evidence identified neutral processes as major determinants of the strong and positive covariation between plant species richness and AFLP genetic diversity of the common sedge Carex gayana. To tease apart putative neutral and non-neutral genetic variation of C. gayana, we identified loci putatively under selection from a dataset of 1,709 SNPs produced using restriction site-associated DNA sequencing (RAD-seq). Significant and positive relationships between local estimates of genetic and species diversities (α-SGDCs) were only found with the putatively neutral loci datasets and with species richness, confirming that neutral processes were primarily driving the correlations and that the involved processes differentially influenced local species diversity components (i.e., richness and evenness). In contrast, SGDCs based on genetic and community dissimilarities (β-SGDCs) were only significant with the putative non-neutral datasets. This suggests that selective processes influencing C. gayana genetic diversity were involved in the detected correlations. Together, our results demonstrate that analyzing distinct components of genetic and species diversity simultaneously is useful to determine the mechanisms behind species-genetic diversity relationships.

Maternal genetic heritage of Southeastern Europe reveals a new Croatian isolate and a novel, local sub-branching in the x2 haplogroup

High mtDNA variation in Southeastern Europe (SEE) is a reflection of the turbulent and complex demographic history of this area, influenced by gene flow from various parts of Eurasia and a long history of intermixing. Our results of 1035 samples (488 from Croatia, 239 from Bosnia and 130 from Herzegovina, reported earlier, and 97 Slovenians and 81 individuals from Žumberak, reported here for the first time) show that the SEE maternal genetic diversity fits within a broader European maternal genetic landscape. The study also shows that the population of Žumberak, located in the continental part of Croatia, developed some unique mtDNA haplotypes and elevated haplogroup frequencies due to distinctive demographic history and can be considered a moderate genetic isolate. We also report seven samples from the Bosnian population and one Herzegovinian sample designated as X2* individuals that could not be assigned to any of its sublineages (X2a'o) according to the existing X2 phylogeny. In an attempt to clarify the phylogeny of our X2 samples, their mitochondrial DNA has been completely sequenced. We suppose that these lineages are signs of local microdifferentiation processes that occurred in the recent demographic past in this area and could possibly be marked as SEE-specific X2 sublineages.