Fitness effects of derived deleterious mutations in four closely related wild tomato species with spatial structure.

ABSTRACT: A key issue in evolutionary biology is an improved understanding of the genetic mechanisms by which species adapt to various environments. Using DNA sequence data, it is possible to quantify the number of adaptive and deleterious mutations, and the distribution of fitness effects of new mutations (its mean and variance) by simultaneously taking into account the demography of a given species. We investigated how selection functions at eight housekeeping genes of four closely related, outcrossing species of wild tomatoes that are native to diverse environments in western South America (Solanum arcanum, S. chilense, S. habrochaites and S. peruvianum). We found little evidence for adaptive mutations but pervasive evidence for strong purifying selection in coding regions of the four species. In

SUBMITTER: Tellier A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3183944 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature