Meiotic recombination plays a crucial role in plant breeding through the creation of new allelic combinations. Therefore, lack of recombination in some genomic regions constitutes a constraint for breeding programmes. In sugar beet, one of the major crops in Europe, recombination occurs mainly in the distal portions of the chromosomes, and so the development of simple approaches to change this pattern is of considerable intere...

In endangered species, it is critical to analyse the level at which populations interact (i.e. dispersal) as well as the levels of inbreeding and local adaptation to set up conservation policies. These parameters were investigated in the endangered species Parnassia palustris living in contrasted habitats. We analysed population structure in 14 populations of northern France for isozymes, cpDNA markers and phenotypic traits re...

Amounts of genetic variability, genetic differentiation among taxa and populations, and population sizes were studied in five populations of Centaurea maculosa ssp. maculosa (a widespread taxon), all six populations of C. corymbosa (a narrowly endemic species), and the single population of C. maculosa ssp. albida . Seventeen isozyme loci were studied, of which nine were polymorphic. Results suggest that C. corymbosa and C. mac...