Nucleotide variation at 12-16 nuclear loci was studied in three spruce species from the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP), Picea likiangensis, P. wilsonii, and P. purpurea, and one species from the Tian Shan mountain range, P. schrenkiana. Silent nucleotide diversity was limited in P. schrenkiana and high in the three species from the QTP, with values higher than in boreal spruce species, despite their much more restricted distributions compared with that of the boreal species. In contrast to European boreal species that have experienced severe bottlenecks in the past, coalescent-based analysis suggests that DNA polymorphism in the species from the QTP and adjacent areas is compatible with the standard neutral model (P. likiangensis, P. wilsonii, and P. schrenkiana) or with population growth (P. purpurea). In order to test if P. purpurea is a diploid hybrid of P. likiangensis and P. wilsonii, we used a combination of approaches, including model-based inference of population structure, isolation-with-migration models, and recent theoretical results on the effect of introgression on the geographic distribution of diversity. In contrast to the three other species, each of which was predominantly assigned to a single cluster in the Structure analysis, P. purpurea individuals were scattered over the three main clusters and not, as we had expected, confined to the P. likiangensis and P. wilsonii clusters. Furthermore, the contribution of P. schrenkiana was by far the largest one. In agreement with this, the divergence between P. purpurea and P. schrenkiana was lower than the divergence of either P. likiangensis or P. wilsonii from P. schrenkiana. These results, together with previous ones showing that P. purpurea and P. wilsonii share the same haplotypes at both chloroplast and mitochondrial markers, suggest that P. purpurea has a complex origin, possibly involving additional species.

This article documents the addition of 139 microsatellite marker loci and 90 pairs of singlenucleotide polymorphism sequencing primers to the Molecular Ecology Resources Database. Loci were developed for the following species: Aglaoctenus lagotis, Costus pulverulentus, Costus scaber, Culex pipiens, Dascyllus marginatus, Lupinus nanus Benth, Phloeomyzus passerini, Podarcis muralis, Rhododendron rubropilosum Hayata var. taiwanalpinum and Zoarces viviparus. These loci were cross-tested on the following species: Culex quinquefasciatus, Rhododendron pseudochrysanthum Hay. ssp. morii (Hay.) Yamazaki and R. pseudochrysanthum Hayata. This article also documents the addition of 48 sequencing primer pairs and 90 allele-specific primers for Engraulis encrasicolus. et al.

The Myristicaceae family is a primitive angiosperm family and is characterized by species that are highly endemic to the Western Ghats area of India. Myristica malabarica is confined to the evergreen forests of Western Ghats and Sri Lanka. In this paper we describe for the first time the development of eleven polymorhpic microsatellite markers for Myristica malabarica, which had 2-14 alleles per locus. These microsatellite markers could be used to study the population genetic structure of the species.

The 2nd author's name has been incorrectly displayed in the original article. It should be P. Mohana Kumara and not M. Kumara.