TY - JOUR N2 - Poa annua L. is the only non−native vascular plant that was successfully established in the maritime Antarctic. This project aimed to determine the amount of genetic and epigenetic variation within and between two populations of P. annua , one from South Shetland Is. (Antarctic) and the other one from Central Europe. We applied two AFLP marker systems, using endonucleases that recognised the same restriction site but differed in their sensitivity towards methylation. The Antarctic population differed from the Polish one both at the genetic and epigenetic levels. Genetic variability in the Antarctic population was lower than in the Polish one. Some loci in the Antarctic population showed signs of selection. The difference between Polish and Antarctic populations might be due to a weak bottleneck effect followed by population expansion. Using only epigenetic markers, the Ant − arctic population exhibited increased variation level compared to the Polish one. These may have resulted from plastic responses to environmental factors and could be associated with survival in extreme conditions. L1 - http://www.journals.pan.pl/Content/99515/PDF/10183_Volume33_Issue1_05_paper.pdf L2 - http://www.journals.pan.pl/Content/99515 PY - 2012 IS - No 1 EP - 80 DO - 10.2478/v10183−012−0004−5 KW - Antarctic KW - Poa annua KW - invasive species KW - metAFLP A1 - Chwedorzewska, Katarzyna J. A1 - Bednarek, Piotr B. PB - Polish Academy of Sciences PB - Committee on Polar Research DA - 2012 T1 - Genetic and epigenetic variation in a cosmopolitan grass Poa annua from Antarctic and Polish populations SP - 63 UR - http://www.journals.pan.pl/dlibra/publication/edition/99515 T2 - Polish Polar Research ER -