Palms play crucial ecological and economic roles, and Syagrus romanzoffiana is a widely distributed species in South America. Despite its ecological importance and economic potential, population-level genetic studies of this palm remain limited. Here, we assessed genetic diversity, population structure, and signatures of local adaptation across distinct vegetation types in Brazil and Paraguay using 24,859 single nucleotide pol...

Marine turtles undertake long migrations across different geographies and habitats, exposing them to a wide range of threats throughout their lifespan. Analysing population structure and connectivity is key to informing effective conservation management. We expand knowledge of Atlantic-wide connectivity of green turtles ( Chelonia mydas ) by characterising the genetic structure of the Ascension Island nesting population, one o...

The angelshark, Squatina squatina , is listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, and remaining populations are highly fragmented throughout its historical distribution. The Canary Islands archipelago in the North East Atlantic has been identified as a uniquely large stronghold for the species. In the present study, we compared the population genetic structure of S. squatina across different is...

Populations of plants and animals at the edge of a species’ range may exhibit lower genetic diversity due to a combination of historical (e.g., postglacial dispersal) and contemporary (e.g., low effective population size, strong genetic drift or bottlenecks) processes. In this study, we analysed the genetic structure of populations of the European pond turtle ( Emys orbicularis ) in the northern part of the Pannonian Basin (Sl...

Crop wild relatives (CWR) represent valuable sources of traits that can enhance the abiotic and biotic stress tolerance of crops. Due to climate change and expansion of land use, they may suffer from population decline, which increases the risk of losing these resources. The in situ conservation of CWR is receiving growing attention to preserve their intraspecific diversity. In contrast to the safeguarding of seeds ex situ, th...

Conservation breeding programs are increasingly used as recovery actions for wild animals; bringing founders into captivity to rear captive populations for future reintroduction into the wild. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature recommends that founders should come from genetically close populations and should have sufficient genetic diversity to avoid mating among relatives. Genomic data are highly informat...

Introduced non-native species can threaten native species through interspecific hybridisation and genetic introgression. We assessed the prevalence of hybridisation and introgression between introduced European brown hare, Lepus europaeus , and the endemic Irish hare, L. timidus hibernicus . Roadkill hares ( n = 56) were sequenced for a 379bp section of the mitochondrial DNA D-loop and a 474bp segment of the nuclear transferri...

Genetic variation is often lower at high latitudes, which may compromise the adaptability and hence survival of organisms. Here we show that genetic variability is negatively correlated with northern latitude in European green toads ( Bufotes viridis ). The result holds true for both putatively neutral microsatellite variation and supposedly adaptive MHC Class IIB variation. In particular, our findings have bearing on the cons...

Translocation of conspecific individuals to reduce extinction risk of small, isolated populations and prevent genetic depletion is a powerful tool in conservation biology. An important question is how the translocated individuals influence the long-term genetic composition of the recipient population. Here, we experimentally reinforced a house sparrow ( Passer domesticus ) population, and examined the impact of this translocat...