Biogeography of Italy revisited: genetic lineages confirm major phylogeographic patterns and a pre-Pleistocene origin of its biota.

ABSTRACT: Warm-adapted species survived the cold stages of the past glacial-interglacial cycles in southern European peninsulas and recolonized major parts of Central and Northern Europe in the wake of postglacial warming. However, many of the genetic lineages which differentiated within these refugia predate even the Pleistocene. One of these refugia is the Italian Peninsula with its surrounding islands. In this meta-analysis, we compiled phylogeographic patterns of multiple species across this region. We transformed existing geographic information on 78 animal and plant species (with a total of 471 genetic lineages) within 17 predefined areas into presence/absence matrices. We elaborated three matrices: (i) only old lineages exclusively distinguished by deep splits, (ii) only young lineages distin

SUBMITTER: Schmitt T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8240252 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature