Integrating evolutionary and functional approaches to infer adaptation at specific loci.

ABSTRACT: Inferences about adaptation at specific loci are often exclusively based on the static analysis of DNA sequence variation. Ideally,population-genetic evidence for positive selection serves as a stepping-off point for experimental studies to elucidate the functional significance of the putatively adaptive variation. We argue that inferences about adaptation at specific loci are best achieved by integrating the indirect, retrospective insights provided by population-genetic analyses with the more direct, mechanistic insights provided by functional experiments. Integrative studies of adaptive genetic variation may sometimes be motivated by experimental insights into molecular function, which then provide the impetus to perform population genetic tests to evaluate whether the functional variat

SUBMITTER: Storz JF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2981648 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature