Maintenance of polymorphism in spatially heterogeneous environments.

ABSTRACT: Local adaptation occurs when species adapt to spatially heterogeneous environments. The stability of local adaptation is determined by migration-selection-drift balance: selection favors adaptive divergence whereas migration and random genetic drift cause the collapse of divergence. The evolutionary dynamics of this balance have been extensively studied, but most previous theories used models with simple population structure and environmental variation, precluding their applicability to complex situations in nature. To address this issue, we developed a new theoretical method to analyze complex multi-population models, allowing heterogeneity in selection, migration, and population density. In essence, our method approximates a complex spatial model with a panmictic one-population model whi

SUBMITTER: Sakamoto T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12774833 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature