Polyglutamine variation in a flowering time protein correlates with island age in a Hawaiian plant radiation.

ABSTRACT:

Background

A controversial topic in evolutionary developmental biology is whether morphological diversification in natural populations can be driven by expansions and contractions of amino acid repeats in proteins. To promote adaptation, selection on protein length variation must overcome deleterious effects of multiple correlated traits (pleiotropy). Thus far, systems that demonstrate this capacity include only ancient or artificial morphological diversifications. The Hawaiian Islands, with their linear geological sequence, present a unique environment to study recent, natural radiations. We have focused our research on the Hawaiian endemic mints (Lamiaceae), a large and diverse lineage with paradoxically low genetic variation, in order to test whether a direct relationship betwee

SUBMITTER: Lindqvist C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1939987 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature