Laurent Excoffier

TL;DR: The fact that the high genetic variability observed in nursing colonies that are located some distance from potential Pleistocene refugia is probably due to the combined effect of rapid evolution of the control region in growing populations and a range shift of noctule populations parallel to the recovery of forests in Europe after the last glaciations is discussed.

TL;DR: The maximum-likelihood method was used to estimate the gamma shape parameter alpha for variable substitution rates among sites for HVI from humans and chimpanzees to provide estimates for future studies, and an alpha of 0.4 appears suitable for both humans and chimpanzee.

TL;DR: The expansion load process in models where population growth depends on the population’s fitness is studied, showing that expansion load can severely slow down expansions and limit a species’ range, even in the absence of environmental variation.

TL;DR: It is shown that models of human history that include both population growth and spatial structure can generate the observed patterns without selection.

TL;DR: The detected patterns are difficult to explain only by range expansions from separate LGM refugia close to the Mediterranean and suggest that some M. arvalis populations persisted during the LGM in suitable habitat further north and that the gradients in genetic diversity may represent traces of a more ancient colonization of Europe by the species.