High Nucleotide Diversity Accompanies Differential DNA Methylation in Naturally Diverging Populations.

ABSTRACT: Epigenetic mechanisms such as DNA methylation (DNAme) are thought to comprise an invaluable adaptive toolkit in the early stages of local adaptation, especially when genetic diversity is constrained. However, the link between genetic diversity and DNAme has been scarcely examined in natural populations, despite its potential to shed light on the evolutionary forces acting on methylation state. Here, we analyzed reduced-representation bisulfite sequencing and whole-genome pool-seq data from marine and freshwater stickleback populations to examine the relationship between DNAme variation (between- and within-population) and nucleotide diversity in the context of freshwater adaptation. We find that sites that are differentially methylated between populations have higher underlying standing ge

SUBMITTER: Ord J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10139703 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature