Pleistocene glaciations caused the latitudinal gradient of within-species genetic diversity.

ABSTRACT: Intraspecific genetic diversity is a key aspect of biodiversity. Quaternary climatic change and glaciation influenced intraspecific genetic diversity by promoting range shifts and population size change. However, the extent to which glaciation affected genetic diversity on a global scale is not well established. Here we quantify nucleotide diversity, a common metric of intraspecific genetic diversity, in more than 38,000 plant and animal species using georeferenced DNA sequences from millions of samples. Results demonstrate that tropical species contain significantly more intraspecific genetic diversity than nontropical species. To explore potential evolutionary processes that may have contributed to this pattern, we calculated summary statistics that measure population demographic change

SUBMITTER: Fonseca EM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10565891 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature