Diversifying selection drives parallel evolution of gill raker number and body size along the speciation continuum of European whitefish.

ABSTRACT: Adaptive radiation is the evolution of ecological and phenotypical diversity. It arises via ecological opportunity that promotes the exploration of underutilized or novel niches mediating specialization and reproductive isolation. The assumed precondition for rapid local adaptation is diversifying natural selection, but random genetic drift could also be a major driver of this process. We used 27 populations of European whitefish (Coregonus lavaretus) from nine lakes distributed in three neighboring subarctic watercourses in northern Fennoscandia as a model to test the importance of random drift versus diversifying natural selection for parallel evolution of adaptive phenotypic traits. We contrasted variation for two key adaptive phenotypic traits correlated with resource utilization of po

SUBMITTER: Hakli K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5838045 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature