XVI International Botanical Congess

We show that naturally occurring DNA polymorphism (scaled by locus-specific divergence between species) is positively correlated with the density of crossing-over per physical length. Large between-species differences in the amount of DNA sequence polymorphism reflect breeding systems: selfing species show much less within-species polymorphism than outcrossing species. The strongest association of expected heterozygosity with crossing-over is found in species with intermediate levels of average nucleotide diversity. All of these observations appear to be in qualitative agreement with the hitchhiking effects caused by the fixation of advantageous mutations and/or background selection against deleterious mutations.