In a recent TREE perspective, Bossart and Prowell1 concluded that researchers estimating population structure used antiquated methods, and failed to acknowledge and test underlying model assumptions. We found these conclusions surprisingly pessimistic and decided to examine 67 papers on population structure from Evolution and Molecular Ecology (1997). Although many studies in Evolution were bas...

Knowledge of patterns of genetic diversity enhances the efficiency of germplasm conservation and improvement. This study examined the organization of diversity for morphological and agronomic characteristics in 306 landraces of cultivated common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) from Latin America and its relationship with phaseolin seed protein and allozyme diversity of the landraces. Data on pigme...

The frequency and strength with which selection shapes patterns of genetic variation is unknown. Whereas all loci should be roughly equally affected by demography and population history, selected loci may exhibit increased or decreased genetic differentiation relative to neutral loci (Cavalli-Sforza 1966). Thus, one way to test for selection on a specific category of loci is to compare geograph...

Little or no genetic divergence is detected using mitochondrial 16S rDNA sequence comparisons across the entire geographic range of the scorpion Euscorpius italicus (Herbst 1800) from Switzerland, Italy, Slovenia, Greece and Turkey. This is consistent with known absence of patterns of allozymes and morphological variation. Euscorpius italicus is found almost exclusively in human habitations. It...

Eighteen varieties of sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.), originating from various European countries, were compared in respect of peroxidase variability level. They were cultivated in the same experimental plot. The cultivars differed in ploidy level: one variety was tetraploid, three were diploid and 14 varieties were triploid. The cathodic peroxidase system is controlled by four independent genes...