Conservation Genetics and Biogeography of Seed Plant Species II
A special issue of Diversity (ISSN 1424-2818). This special issue belongs to the section "Biodiversity Conservation".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2024 | Viewed by 4721
Special Issue Editors
Interests: biogeography; conservation genetics; East Asia; ecological niche modeling; invasive alien species; Mediterranean Basin; phylogeography; rare and endangered species
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: biogeography; evolution; invasive species; Mediterranean Basin; molecular dating; phylogeography; polyploidy; rare and endangered species; speciation; systematics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: biogeography; conservation genetics; evolution; hybridization; phylogeny; polyploidy; speciation; systematics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Spermatophytes or seed plants are the largest and most diverse group among land plants, with over 300,000 described and accepted species. Having appeared on Earth at the end of the Devonian period (ca. 370 mya), the extraordinary geological and climatic changes that have occurred since then have interplayed with genetic diversity (the raw material on which evolution acts), creating and transforming, but also extinguishing plant species.
Maintaining sufficient levels of genetic variability in populations of seed plant species is the basis for their adaptation to novel, changing environments (and, thus, for molecular/phenotypic evolution and lineage diversification), but also it may help to prevent certain processes, such as genetic drift and inbreeding and, ultimately, their extinction. The development of neutral molecular markers, such as allozymes, microsatellites, AFLPs, or ISSRs, has allowed the evaluation of genetic diversity within and between populations, at local, regional, and global levels. These studies can also be very useful to select populations worthy of conservation measures (both in situ and ex situ), to define management units, and even to design population reinforcements or reintroductions. Genetic diversity studies can also provide new insights into the biological and evolutionary aspects of species (e.g., detection of hybridization events, bottlenecks and founder effects, and characterization of polyploidy). With the advent of phylogeographic markers (cpDNA and mtDNA and more recently SNPs and NGS-based markers), we have improved our understanding of the effect of time and space on genetic variation, allowing inferences about the location of Pleistocene refugia, but also reconstructing recolonization routes and estimating lineage age and identifying evolutionarily significant units. This information, in turn, is of utmost importance for the design of adequate conservation measures if the species under study is rare or threatened.
This Special Issue provides a platform to highlight new research from both empirical and theoretical perspectives. There are still many questions to be explored on biogeography, evolution, speciation and population genetics, and this Special Issue welcomes articles, opinions and reviews addressing any of these issues.
Dr. Jordi López-Pujol
Dr. Roser Vilatersana
Dr. Núria Garcia-Jacas
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Diversity is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- conservation genetics
- genetic diversity
- molecular markers
- phylogeography
- seed plants
