Morphological clines and weak drift along an urbanization gradient in the butterfly, Pieris rapae.

ABSTRACT: Urban areas are increasing globally, providing opportunities for biodiversity researchers to study the process in which species become established in novel, highly disturbed habitats. This ecological process can be understood through analyses of morphological and genetic variation, which can shed light on patterns of neutral and adaptive evolution. Previous studies have shown that urban populations often diverge genetically from non-urban source populations. This could occur due to neutral genetic drift, but an alternative is that selection could lead to allele frequency changes in urban populations. The development of genome scan methods provides an opportunity to investigate these outcomes from samples of genetic variation taken along an urbanization gradient. Here we examine morphologic

SUBMITTER: Schoville SD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3873920 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature