Genomic population reveals potential micro-refuge and riverine barriers in southern South American grasslands: An example in nightshade: VCF file (16,128 SNPs)

Aim: Pleistocene climate oscillations influenced the species distribution and genetic diversity in South American grasslands. Paleoclimate changes promoted expansion and contraction cycles that could lead to fragmentation and isolation of evolutionary lineages in refuges. Moreover, sea-level oscillations led to defrosting in some areas, affecting the river dynamics and influencing South American species' evolutionary history. This study aimed to infer which evolutionary processes most influenced the lineages differentiation in South American nightshade Petunia inhabiting subtropical grasslands in a phylogeographical context.
Location: Pampa and Chaco.
Taxon: The widely distributed herb Petunia axillaris subsp. parodii (Solanaceae)
Methods: We obtained a high-density genome coverage throughout Petunia axillaris subsp . parodii geographic distribution. We estimated the genetic diversity and structure to evaluate population differentiation and applied a model-based demographic analysis ...