Pleiotropy facilitates local adaptation to distant optima in common ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia).

ABSTRACT: Pleiotropy, the control of multiple phenotypes by a single locus, is expected to slow the rate of adaptation by increasing the chance that beneficial alleles also have deleterious effects. However, a prediction arising from classical theory of quantitative trait evolution states that pleiotropic alleles may have a selective advantage when phenotypes are distant from their selective optima. We examine the role of pleiotropy in regulating adaptive differentiation among populations of common ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia); a species that has recently expanded its North American range due to human-mediated habitat change. We employ a phenotype-free approach by using connectivity in gene networks as a proxy for pleiotropy. First, we identify loci bearing footprints of local adaptation, and t

SUBMITTER: Hamala T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7135370 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature