How genome divergence eventually leads to speciation is a topic of prime evolutionary interest. Genomic islands of elevated divergence are frequently reported between diverging lineages, and their size is expected to increase with time and gene flow under the speciation-with-gene-flow model. However, such islands can also result from divergent sorting of ancient polymorphisms, recent ecological...

During the last decades the importance of the genus Populus increased because the poplar genome has been sequenced and molecular tools for basic research have become available. Poplar species occur in different habitats and harbor large genetic variation, which can be exploited for economic applications and for increasing our knowledge on the basic molecular mechanisms of the woody life style. ...

Water use efficiency (WUE, the ratio of gross primary productivity (GPP) to evapotranspiration (ET)) reflects coupled relationship between water loss and carbon gain in process plant photosynthetic assimilation. As a dominant tree species arid area, Populus euphratica plays an important ecological role slowing desertification. Here, continuous observations carbon, water, energy fluxes were carr...

How sex-related root traits and soil microbes their interactions respond to drought remains unclear. Here, we investigated how fine the composition of rhizosphere microbial communities in Populus euphratica females males concert 17-year-old plantations. Females increased specific length (SRL) response drought. However, showed no changes roots but significant increases arbuscular mycorrhizal hyp...