Natural variation in abiotic stress responsive gene expression and local adaptation to climate in Arabidopsis thaliana.

ABSTRACT: Gene expression varies widely in natural populations, yet the proximate and ultimate causes of this variation are poorly known. Understanding how variation in gene expression affects abiotic stress tolerance, fitness, and adaptation is central to the field of evolutionary genetics. We tested the hypothesis that genes with natural genetic variation in their expression responses to abiotic stress are likely to be involved in local adaptation to climate in Arabidopsis thaliana. Specifically, we compared genes with consistent expression responses to environmental stress (expression stress responsive, "eSR") to genes with genetically variable responses to abiotic stress (expression genotype-by-environment interaction, "eGEI"). We found that on average genes that exhibited eGEI in response to dr

SUBMITTER: Lasky JR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4137704 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature