Patterns of genetic diversity and candidate genes for ecological divergence in a homoploid hybrid sunflower, Helianthus anomalus.

ABSTRACT: Natural hybridization accompanied by a shift in niche preference by hybrid genotypes can lead to hybrid speciation. Natural selection may cause the fixation of advantageous alleles in the ecologically diverged hybrids, and the loci experiencing selection should exhibit a reduction in allelic diversity relative to neutral loci. Here, we analyzed patterns of genetic diversity at 59 microsatellite loci associated with expressed sequence tags (ESTs) in a homoploid hybrid sunflower species, Helianthus anomalus. We used two indices, ln RV and ln RH, to compare variation and heterozygosity (respectively) at each locus between the hybrid species and its two parental species, H. annuus and H. petiolaris. Mean values of ln RV and ln RH were significantly lower than zero, which implies that H. anomal

SUBMITTER: Sapir Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2467390 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature