Balancing selection and introgression of newt immune-response genes.

ABSTRACT: The importance of interspecific introgression as a source of adaptive variation is increasingly recognized. Theory predicts that beneficial genetic variants cross species boundaries easily even when interspecific hybridization is rare and gene flow is strongly constrained throughout the genome. However, it remains unclear whether certain classes of genes are particularly prone to adaptive introgression. Genes affected by balancing selection (BS) may constitute such a class, because forms of BS that favour novel, initially rare alleles, should facilitate introgression. We tested this hypothesis in hybridizing newts by comparing 13 genes with signatures of BS, in particular an excess of common non-synonymous polymorphisms, to the genomic background (154 genes). Parapatric hybridizing taxa we

SUBMITTER: Fijarczyk A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6111169 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature