biogeografialle

Biogeografialle, or the biogeography of alleles, is a field concerned with how genetic variation at the level of individual alleles is distributed across geographic space and over time. It integrates principles from biogeography, population genetics, and landscape genetics to understand spatial patterns of allele frequencies and their underlying processes.

The scope includes mapping allele frequencies in populations, identifying geographic clines, barriers to gene flow, and regions of localized adaptation. Key drivers are gene flow, genetic drift, natural selection, mutation, and historical demography, as well as environmental gradients and landscape features such as mountains, rivers, and habitat fragmentation.

Methods involve collecting georeferenced genetic data from individuals or populations, genotyping or sequencing to obtain allele frequencies, and applying spatial statistics, cline analyses, isolation-by-distance tests, and landscape genetics workflows. Data sources include SNP panels, haplotype data, and whole-genome data, combined with environmental and geographic layers in GIS and statistical models, including spatially explicit simulations.

Applications include conservation planning, identifying refugia and corridors, mapping adaptive alleles in response to climate or habitat change, informing breeding programs, and studying the historical biogeography of species.

Relation to related fields: it overlaps with phylogeography, landscape genetics, and population genomics. It differs by emphasizing the spatial distribution of individual alleles rather than broader population-level summaries.

Limitations and challenges include uneven sampling, scale and resolution issues, spatial autocorrelation, multiple testing, and interpretive complexity in distinguishing demographic history from selection.