The rapidly emerging field of macrogenetics focuses on analysing publicly accessible genetic datasets from thousands of species to explore large-scale patterns and predictors of intraspecific genetic variation. Facilitated by advances in evolutionary biology, technology, data infrastructure, statistics and open science, macrogenetics addresses core evolutionary hypotheses (such as disentangling environmental and life-history effects on genetic variation) with a global focus. Yet, there are important, often overlooked, limitations to this approach and best practices need to be considered and adopted if macrogenetics is to continue its exciting trajectory and reach its full potential in fields such as biodiversity monitoring and conservation. Here, we review the history of this rapidly growing field, highlight knowledge gaps and future directions, and provide guidelines for further research.

快速新兴的宏观遗传学领域侧重于分析来自数千个物种的可公开访问的遗传数据集，以探索种内遗传变异的大规模模式和预测因子。在进化生物学、技术、数据基础设施、统计学和开放科学的进步的推动下，宏观遗传学以全球为重点解决了核心进化假设（例如解开环境和生活史对遗传变异的影响）。然而，如果宏观遗传学要继续其激动人心的发展轨迹并在生物多样性监测和保护等领域发挥其全部潜力，则需要考虑和采用这种方法和最佳实践的重要且经常被忽视的局限性。在这里，我们回顾了这个快速发展领域的历史，突出了知识差距和未来方向，