Environmental adaptation contributes to gene polymorphism across the Arabidopsis thaliana genome.

ABSTRACT: The level of within-species polymorphism differs greatly among genes in a genome. Many genomic studies have investigated the relationship between gene polymorphism and factors such as recombination rate or expression pattern. However, the polymorphism of a gene is affected not only by its physical properties or functional constraints but also by natural selection on organisms in their environments. Specifically, if functionally divergent alleles enable adaptation to different environments, locus-specific polymorphism may be maintained by spatially heterogeneous natural selection. To test this hypothesis and estimate the extent to which environmental selection shapes the pattern of genome-wide polymorphism, we define the "environmental relevance" of a gene as the proportion of genetic varia

SUBMITTER: Lee CR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3494268 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature