Adaptive divergence of a transcriptional enhancer between populations of Drosophila melanogaster.

ABSTRACT: As species colonize new habitats they must adapt to the local environment. Much of this adaptation is thought to occur at the regulatory level; however, the relationships among genetic polymorphism, expression variation and adaptation are poorly understood. Drosophila melanogaster, which expanded from an ancestral range in sub-Saharan Africa around 15 000 years ago, represents an excellent model system for studying regulatory evolution. Here, we focus on the gene CG9509, which differs in expression between an African and a European population of D. melanogaster. The expression difference is caused by variation within a transcriptional enhancer adjacent to the CG9509 coding sequence. Patterns of sequence variation indicate that this enhancer was the target of recent positive selection, sugg

SUBMITTER: Glaser-Schmitt A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3826497 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature