The great interest in this subject is partially due to the fact that America was the latest continent colonized by modern humans (ca. 11,000 13,000 years B.P.; [2]) and also due to the high levels of morphological variation found in Native American populations.
Our study thus provides two new B. rapa reference genomes, delivers a set of computer tools to analyse the resulting pan-genome and uses these to shed light on genetic drivers behind the rich morphological variation found in B. rapa.
Thus, the target for the full range of genetic and morphological variation found in areas with high intraspecific alpha-diversity across species is quickly met in relatively small areas (the small, scattered blue areas along the Andes in Fig. 3).
Lange's Metalmark was as genetically divergent as several other locally isolated populations in California, and even the unique phenotype that warranted subspecific and conservation status is reminiscent of the morphological variation found in some other populations.
The first challenge in molecular diversity analysis is thus to sample core collections that better fit the range of morphological and genetic variations found in the global collection.
Despite high levels of selfing, farmer-maintained barley landraces are generally found to be highly variable, with the majority of genetic, morphological, and phenotypic variation found within fields and populations (Backes et al. 2009; Hadado et al. 2010).
Lastly, allopatric and sympatric divergence (through ecological differentiation) and hybridization was considered as possible evolutionary processes that produce and maintain the morphological and genetic variation found in E. flexuosa.
We describe the ectodermal parts of the female reproductive tract for 41 species representing 21 of the 37 described genera and define 19 morphological characters with discontinuous variation found in eight structures that are part of the reproductive tract.
Morphological characters also showed less phenotypic variation found among populations (VST = 38.21 %) (Table 1).
Directional selection and/or phenotypic plasticity can generate fast morphological changes and account for the craniofacial variation found among American populations [7], [54].
