Adaptation can occur at remarkably short timescales in natural populations, leading to drastic changes in phenotypes and genotype frequencies over a few generations only. The inference of demographic parameters can allow understanding how evolutionary forces interact and shape the genetic trajectories of populations during rapid adaptation. Here we propose a new Approximate Bayesian Computation (ABC) framework that couples a f...

The deployment of plant varieties carrying resistance genes ( R ) exerts strong selection pressure on pathogen populations. Rapidly evolving avirulence genes ( Avr ) allow pathogens to escape R ‐mediated plant immunity through a variety of mechanisms, leading to virulence. The poplar rust fungus Melampsora larici ‐ populina is a damaging pathogen of poplars in Europe. It underwent a major adaptive event in 1994, with the break...

Fungal plant pathogens, especially rust fungi ( P ucciniales), are well known for their complex life cycles, which include phases of sexual and asexual reproduction. The effect of asexual multiplication on population genetic diversity has been investigated in the poplar rust fungus M elampsora larici‐populina using a nested hierarchical sampling scheme. Four hierarchical levels were considered: leaf, twig, tree and site. Both...

The advent of molecular epidemiology has greatly improved our ability to identify the population sources and track the pathogen movement. Yet the wide spatial and temporal scales usually considered are useful only to infer historical migration pathways. In this study, Bayesian genetic assignments and a landscape epidemiology approach were combined to unravel genetic origin and annual spread during a single epidemic of a plant...