A classic topic in ecology and evolution, phenotypic microevolution of quantitative traits has received renewed attention in the face of rapid global environmental change. However, for plants, synthesis has been hampered by the limited use of standard metrics, which makes it difficult to systematize empirical information. Here we demonstrate the advantages of incorporating meta-analysis tools to the review of microevolutionary rates. We perform a systematic survey of the plant literature on microevolution of quantitative traits over known periods of time, based on the scopus database. We quantify the amount of change by standard mean difference and develop a set of effect sizes to analyze such data. We show that applying meta-analysis tools to a systematic literature review allows the extraction of a much larger volume of information than directly calculating microevolutionary rates. We also propose derived meta-analysis effect sizes (h, LG and LR) which are appropriate for the study of evolutionary patterns, the first being similar to haldanes, the second and third allowing the application of a preexisting analytical framework for the inference of evolutionary mechanisms. This novel methodological development is applicable to the study of microevolution in any taxa. To pilot test it, we built an open-access database of 1,711 microevolutionary rates of 152 angiosperm species from 128 studies documenting population changes in quantitative traits following an environmental novelty with a known elapsed time (<260 years). The performance of the metrics proposed (h, LG and LR) is similar to that of preexisting ones, and at the same time they bring the advantages of lower estimation bias and higher number of usable observations typical of meta-analysis.

Epidemiological studies suggest that by 2020 the prevalence of primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) is estimated to increase to 76.0 million, and to 111.8 million by 2040 globally due to the population aging. The prevalence of POAG is the highest among those of African descent, followed by Asians, and the lowest in Europeans. POAG is a genetically complex trait with a substantial fraction exhibiting a significant heritability. Less than 10% of POAG cases in the general population are caused by specific gene mutations and the remaining cases are polygenic. Quantitative traits related to POAG pathogenesis such as intra-ocular pressure (IOP), vertical cup/disc ratio (VCDR), optic disc area, and central corneal thickness (CCT) are highly heritable, and likely to be influenced at least in part by genes and show substantial variation in human populations. Recent genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified several single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) at different loci including CAV1/CAV2, TMCO1, CDKN2B-AS1, CDC7-TGFBR3, SIX1/SIX6, GAS7 and ATOH7 to be associated with POAG and its related quantitative traits (endophenotypes). The chapter provides a brief overview on the different GWAS and SNP association studies and their correlation with various clinical parameters important for POAG in the population worldwide, including the Middle East.