Reduced responses to selection after species range expansion.

Journal article

Species range expansion reduces genetic variation at the margins of a species range and should thus compromise the adaptive potential of its marginal populations. Remarkably, this prediction has not previously been tested. Here, we show that populations of the plant Mercurialis annua, which expanded its range into Spain and Portugal from North Africa after the Pleistocene glaciation, respond to selection on a key life-history trait less well than populations from the species' historical refug...

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Authors: Pujol, B; Pannell, J

• Publication status: Published
• Journal: Science (New York, N.Y.)
• Volume: 321
• Issue: 5885
• Pages: 96
• Publication date: 2008-07-01
• DOI: 10.1126/science.1157570
• EISSN: 1095-9203
• ISSN: 0036-8075
• Language: English
• Keywords: Flowers; Euphorbiaceae; Genetic Variation; Phenotype; Portugal; Pollen; Africa, Northern; Selection, Genetic; Spain; Reproduction