Open research questions in Genetic diversity and population structure

What the literature leaves open

• Prior to this study, the literature and international databases contained very scarce data on the distribution of C. This gap in knowledge is likely due to the limited research on the genus in Russia and neighboring countries, as well as the difficulties of species-level identification of juvenile individuals described above.

  Molecular Identification Reveals Hidden Distribution Patterns in Cognettia (Enchytraeidae) · 2026 · DOI

• The wide connectivity across the range of distribution can be taken as evidence of a single population, and even though low effective population sizes may be a concern, moderate genetic diversity levels and the lack of evidence of strong inbreeding raise optimism about the recovery of the wild population, as long as adequate conservation programs that include a proper genetic monitoring protocol are established soon.

  Enduring Gene Flow, Despite an Extremely Low Effective Population Size, Supports Hope for the Recovery of the Globally Endangered Lear’s Macaw · 2026 · DOI

• The relative strengths of these two types of regulation remain to be quantified across plant species. Landscape genomic analysis is currently applied to identify genome-wide SNPs associated with adaptation. This method combines multiple levels of data (population genomic, environmental and geographical data) and identifies adaptation signatures at the genome-scale.

  Limits to Plant Species’ Ranges: A Unified Eco-Evolutionary Model and Molecular Mechanisms · 2026 · DOI

• Our data establish a starting point for understanding otter phylogeography in southwestern Asia and Southeastern Europe and may trigger further studies of regional population structure of otters and associated conservation planning in Türkiye and other parts of the Near East.

  Mitochondrial DNA Lineages of Eurasian Otters (Lutra lutra) in Central Anatolia: A Phylogenetic Bridge Between Asia and Europe? · 2026 · DOI

• The United Kingdom aims to dramatically accelerate the establishment of new woodlands by 2050, yet the impact of different afforestation strategies on landscape genetic diversity and resilience remains unclear.

  Genetic Consequences of Tree Planting Versus Natural Colonisation: Implications for Afforestation Programmes in the United Kingdom · 2025 · DOI

• Despite extensive studies using meteorological data, field population observations, and whole‐genome analyses, the BPH migratory pathways to East Asia remain unclear.

  Genomic Analysis Reveals Annual Variation in the Migratory Pathways to East Asia in the Brown Planthopper ( Nilaparvata lugens ) · 2025 · DOI

• However, most recommended minimum sample sizes for sufficient ex situ genetic diversity are based on microsatellite markers, and it remains unknown whether these sample sizes remain valid in light of more recently developed next‐generation sequencing (NGS) approaches.

  Ex situ conservation of two rare oak species using microsatellite and SNP markers · 2024 · DOI

• The captive populations from the two Spanish centers involved in restocking programs showed genetic introgression from European zoos; however, we found limited evidence of introgression from the zoo genetic stock into the wild population from Spain, suggesting captive‐bred birds have limited breeding success in the wild.

  Demographic and conservation genomic assessment of the threatened marbled teal (Marmaronetta angustirostris) · 2024 · DOI

• Future research should address both the origin of the Sicilian population, for which only preliminary hypotheses could be proposed, and the role of the contact zone between E.

  Phylogeography and population structure of the Western European hedgehog across Italian islands and mainland · 2026 · DOI

• These findings provide a genomic framework for further investigation of the origin, conservation, and utilization of this distinctive local rose germplasm.

  Genetic Background of the Hetian Rose Inferred from SNPs in Single-Copy Nuclear Loci and Plastid Genomes · 2026 · DOI

• Outlier detection methods yielded inconsistent results: very few candidates were identified and there was no overlap across approaches for either K = 2 or K = 3.

  Genomic, morphological and migratory patterns in recovering Atlantic salmon populations · 2026 · DOI

• However, knowledge about the genetic diversity and population structure of natural and farmed populations, which is crucial for effective conservation and sustainable aquaculture management, is scarce.

  Genetic Diversity, Population Structure and Differentiation of Farmed and Wild African Catfish ( Clarias gariepinus ) in Nigeria · 2026 · DOI

• The silvery lightfish-one of the most abundant species inhabiting the North Atlantic mesopelagic layer-is a candidate for such a fishery despite its enormous ecological importance and the insufficient knowledge about its population genetic structure.

  Genetics in the Ocean's Twilight Zone: Population Structure of the Silvery Lightfish Across Its Distribution Range · 2026 · DOI

• CUs have been defined in many species of harvested anadromous salmonids, but broad‐scale data remain lacking in the Canadian Arctic, where anadromous Arctic Char ( Salvelinus alpinus) dominates catches in Indigenous‐led subsistence and commercial fisheries.

  Conservation Units for Anadromous Arctic Char ( Salvelinus alpinus ) in the Canadian Arctic Informed by Genetic Structure, Population Connectivity and Adaptive Genomic Variation · 2026 · DOI

• Shifts between population connectivity and isolation shape evolutionary divergence, but their effects remain underexplored in highly mobile taxa.

  Extreme Mobility Creates Contrasting Patterns of Panmixia, Isolation‐by‐Distance and Hybridization in Four Flying‐Fox Species ( Pteropus ) · 2026 · DOI

• Aquatic species of economic and ecological importance are increasingly threatened by environmental change, yet their genetic diversity and population structure remain poorly characterised, limiting effective conservation and management.

  A genomic baseline for long-term monitoring of economically important aquatic species in the Netherlands · 2026 · DOI

• Methods that integrate genetic information with other sources of evidence remain limited to simple evolutionary models and are typically unable to analyze more than a few hundred loci across a maximum of a few tens of samples.

  Integrative taxonomy using traits and genomic data for Species Delimitation with Deep learning · 2026 · DOI

• While domestication has been extensively studied in many Mediterranean fruit trees, the evolutionary history of the almond (Prunus dulcis) remains comparatively underexplored.

  Insights Into the Almond Domestication History · 2025 · DOI

• As yet, the nature and scope of Arctic charr diversity has not been characterised at the scale needed to delineate key conservation units in Scotland.

  Defining Conservation Units in a Highly Diverse Species: A Case on Arctic Charr · 2025 · DOI

• The use of assisted migration as a conservation strategy may be limited by the difficulty of balancing the benefits of reconnecting populations (including reduced inbreeding depression and increased adaptive capacity) with the perceived risk of outbreeding depression, which requires comprehensive knowledge of the landscape of adaptive, neutral, deleterious, and structural variation across a species' range.

  Balancing Inbreeding and Outbreeding Risks to Inform Translocations Throughout the Range of an Imperiled Darter · 2025 · DOI

• While their utility for intraspecific and shallow‐divergence studies is growing, only a few studies have explored their performance in marine taxa, some of them with metapopulations spanning thousands of kilometers.

  Sequencing Ultraconserved Elements ( UCEs ) for Marine Population Genomics: A Proof‐of‐Concept Using a Deep‐Sea Mussel Species · 2026 · DOI

• Interactions among climate change and other anthropogenic threats could significantly complicate predictions of global change yet have rarely been examined.

  Compounding Impacts—Genomic Exploration of the Potential Effect of Domestic Introgression on Climate Adaptation in Atlantic Salmon ( Salmo salar ) · 2026 · DOI

• Analyses that did not account for spatial genetic structuring yielded strong spurious signals of United Kingdom‐wide population expansion, and Ne estimates from these analyses were suppressed by a factor of 3–4.

  Spatio‐Temporal Changes in Effective Population Size in an Expanding Metapopulation of Eurasian Otters · 2025 · DOI

• Validation of this marker panel in coastal salmon populations not previously studied with modern genetic methods also reveals novel biological insights, including the presence of a single copy of a haplotype for a phenotype that has not been documented in that part of the species range, and a clear signal of mixed ancestry for a salmon population that is on the geographic margins of the primary evolutionary lineages…

  A Multipurpose Microhaplotype Panel for Genetic Analysis of California Chinook Salmon · 2025 · DOI

• This study performed genome wide SNP analysis of samples collected across understudied NE Atlantic waters as well as geographical outgroup samples from Morocco and the Western Mediterranean.

  Hierarchical Neutral and Non‐Neutral Spatial Genetic Structuring in the European Sardine (Sardina pilchardus) Revealed by Genomic Analysis: Implications for Management · 2025 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Genetic diversity and population structure

• Measurement of Diversity · Nature · 1949 · 10,761 citations
• Gene Flow and the Geographic Structure of Natural Populations · Science · 1987 · 3,046 citations
• Partitioning selection and complementarity in biodiversity experiments · Nature · 2001 · 2,941 citations
• Integrating common and rare genetic variation in diverse human populations · Nature · 2010 · 2,755 citations
• Genetics and Demography in Biological Conservation · Science · 1988 · 1,769 citations
• Dsuite ‐ Fast D ‐statistics and related admixture evidence from VCF files · Molecular Ecology Resources · 2020 · 933 citations
• Evolution of Darwin’s finches and their beaks revealed by genome sequencing · Nature · 2015 · 924 citations
• Geographic Patterns of (Genetic, Morphologic, Linguistic) Variation: How Barriers Can Be Detected by Using Monmonier's Algorithm · Human Biology · 2004 · 867 citations
• The “Out of Africa” Hypothesis, Human Genetic Diversity, and Comparative Economic Development · American Economic Review · 2013 · 707 citations
• The crucial role of genome-wide genetic variation in conservation · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2021 · 594 citations

Most recent work

• Rapid evolution predicts demographic recovery after extreme drought · Science · 2026
• Escaping bottlenecks: The demographic path to genetic recovery in koalas ( Phascolarctos cinereus ) · Science · 2026
• A Comparative Analysis of Long‐Term Effective Population Sizes Across Eukaryotes · Molecular Ecology · 2026
• Multiple chromosomal inversions modulate continuous local adaptation along a steep thermal cline · Science · 2026
• The Importance of Effective Population Size in Conservation and Biodiversity Monitoring · Evolutionary Applications · 2026
• The Late Quaternary climate impact on the genome of the woodland strawberry (Fragaria vesca), a perennial herb · Communications Biology · 2026
• Phylogeography of Silver Fir in the Pyrenees Based on Palaeoecological and Genetic Data Shows Westward Colonisation · Journal of Biogeography · 2026
• Blind genomic tree scans identify a single ancient multigene barrier to gene flow in Antirrhinum · bioRxiv · 2026
• Adaptive Introgression in the Context of Climate Adaptation · Molecular Ecology · 2026
• Applying Both Landscape Genomic and Ecological Niche Model Predictions to Inform Conservation Strategies of a California Foundational Oak Species · Molecular Ecology · 2026

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