Range-wide genetic differentiation of Eugenia dysenterica (Myrtaceae) populations in Brazilian Cerrado

• We accepted and incorporated all suggestions from the editor and reviewer, and clarified several parts of the text.
• We reduced the number of figures.
• We carefully revised the entire manuscript one more time, improving language and style.

The analysis of geographic patterns in genetic variation has been one of the most important current tools to understand ecological and evolutionary processes underlying population structure. However, inferring such processes from population data may be misleading if biased geographic samples are analyzed. Here we expand previous analyses of Eugenia dysenterica population structure in Brazilian Cerrado, analyzing a larger number of populations distributed throughout a broader geographic region covering most of species' range. We provide new estimates of genetic diversity and population structure based on SSR markers from both neutral and genic regions, using several cluster and ordination techniques. These analyzes reveal a continuous northwestern-southeastern gradient in population differentiation, and not two distinct clusters of populations as suggested in some previous studies. This more comprehensive analysis also reinforces that a simple process of stochastic differentiation do not explain the observed patterns. Moreover, we conclude that explanations for population differentiation may focus on why genetic diversity decreases toward southeastern populations and not necessarily on barriers and interruption of gene flow creating regional patterns of population differentiation.