Genetic trade-offs and conditional neutrality contribute to local adaptation.

ABSTRACT: Divergent natural selection promotes local adaptation and can lead to reproductive isolation of populations in contrasting environments; however, the genetic basis of local adaptation remains largely unresolved in natural populations. Local adaptation might result from antagonistic pleiotropy, where alternate alleles are favoured in distinct habitats, and polymorphism is maintained by selection. Alternatively, under conditional neutrality some alleles may be favoured in one environment but neutral at other locations. Antagonistic pleiotropy maintains genetic variation across the landscape; however, there is a systematic bias against discovery of antagonistic pleiotropy because the fitness benefits of local alleles need to be significant in at least two environments. Here, we develop a gene

SUBMITTER: Anderson JT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3492549 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature