A step-by-step tutorial to use HierFstat to analyse populations hierarchically structured at multiple levels

The populations of parasites and infectious agents are most of the time structured in complex hierarchy that lies beyond the classical nested design described by Wright's F-statistics (F-IS, F-ST and F-IT). In this note we propose a user-friendly step-by-step notice for using recent software (HierFstat) that computes and test fixation indices for any hierarchical structure. We add some tricks and tips for some special data kind (haploid, single focus), some other procedure (bootstrap over loci) and how to handle crossed factors. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.