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Genetic trade-offs and conditional neutrality contribute to local adaptation.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Anderson, JT; Lee, C-R; Rushworth, CA; Colautti, RI; Mitchell-Olds, T
Published in: Molecular ecology
February 2013

Divergent natural selection promotes local adaptation and can lead to reproductive isolation of populations in contrasting environments; however, the genetic basis of local adaptation remains largely unresolved in natural populations. Local adaptation might result from antagonistic pleiotropy, where alternate alleles are favoured in distinct habitats, and polymorphism is maintained by selection. Alternatively, under conditional neutrality some alleles may be favoured in one environment but neutral at other locations. Antagonistic pleiotropy maintains genetic variation across the landscape; however, there is a systematic bias against discovery of antagonistic pleiotropy because the fitness benefits of local alleles need to be significant in at least two environments. Here, we develop a generally applicable method to investigate polygenic local adaptation and identify loci that are the targets of selection. This approach evaluates allele frequency changes after selection at loci across the genome to distinguish antagonistic pleiotropy from conditional neutrality and deleterious variation. We investigate local adaptation at the qualitative trait loci (QTL) level in field experiments, in which we expose 177 F(6) recombinant inbred lines and parental lines of Boechera stricta (Brassicaceae) to their parental environments over two seasons. We demonstrate polygenic selection for native alleles in both environments, with 2.8% of the genome exhibiting antagonistic pleiotropy and 8% displaying conditional neutrality. Our study strongly supports antagonistic pleiotropy at one large-effect flowering phenology QTL (nFT): native homozygotes had significantly greater probabilities of flowering than foreign homozygotes in both parental environments. Such large-scale field studies are essential to elucidate the genetic basis of adaptation in natural populations.

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Published In

Molecular ecology

DOI

EISSN

1365-294X

ISSN

0962-1083

Publication Date

February 2013

Volume

22

Issue

3

Start / End Page

699 / 708

Related Subject Headings

  • Selection, Genetic
  • Quantitative Trait Loci
  • Multifactorial Inheritance
  • Genetic Pleiotropy
  • Gene Frequency
  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Environment
  • Brassicaceae
  • Alleles
  • Adaptation, Physiological
 

Citation

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Anderson, J. T., Lee, C.-R., Rushworth, C. A., Colautti, R. I., & Mitchell-Olds, T. (2013). Genetic trade-offs and conditional neutrality contribute to local adaptation. Molecular Ecology, 22(3), 699–708. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-294x.2012.05522.x
Anderson, Jill T., Cheng-Ruei Lee, Catherine A. Rushworth, Robert I. Colautti, and Thomas Mitchell-Olds. “Genetic trade-offs and conditional neutrality contribute to local adaptation.Molecular Ecology 22, no. 3 (February 2013): 699–708. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-294x.2012.05522.x.
Anderson JT, Lee C-R, Rushworth CA, Colautti RI, Mitchell-Olds T. Genetic trade-offs and conditional neutrality contribute to local adaptation. Molecular ecology. 2013 Feb;22(3):699–708.
Anderson, Jill T., et al. “Genetic trade-offs and conditional neutrality contribute to local adaptation.Molecular Ecology, vol. 22, no. 3, Feb. 2013, pp. 699–708. Epmc, doi:10.1111/j.1365-294x.2012.05522.x.
Anderson JT, Lee C-R, Rushworth CA, Colautti RI, Mitchell-Olds T. Genetic trade-offs and conditional neutrality contribute to local adaptation. Molecular ecology. 2013 Feb;22(3):699–708.
Journal cover image

Published In

Molecular ecology

DOI

EISSN

1365-294X

ISSN

0962-1083

Publication Date

February 2013

Volume

22

Issue

3

Start / End Page

699 / 708

Related Subject Headings

  • Selection, Genetic
  • Quantitative Trait Loci
  • Multifactorial Inheritance
  • Genetic Pleiotropy
  • Gene Frequency
  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Environment
  • Brassicaceae
  • Alleles
  • Adaptation, Physiological