Boundary Effects Cause False Signals of Range Expansions in Population Genomic Data.

ABSTRACT: Studying range expansions is central for understanding genetic variation through space and time as well as for identifying refugia and biological invasions. Range expansions are characterized by serial founder events causing clines of decreasing genetic diversity away from the center of origin and asymmetries in the two-dimensional allele frequency spectra. These asymmetries, summarized by the directionality index (ψ), are sensitive to range expansions and persist for longer than clines in genetic diversity. In continuous and finite meta-populations, genetic drift tends to be stronger at the edges of the species distribution in equilibrium populations and populations undergoing range expansions alike. Such boundary effects are expected to affect geographic patterns in genetic diversity and

SUBMITTER: Kemppainen P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11135943 | biostudies-literature | 2024 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature