Predicting the strength of urban-rural clines in a Mendelian polymorphism along a latitudinal gradient.

ABSTRACT: Cities are emerging as models for addressing the fundamental question of whether populations evolve in parallel to similar environments. Here, we examine the environmental factors that drive the evolution of parallel urban-rural clines in a Mendelian trait-the cyanogenic antiherbivore defense of white clover (Trifolium repens). Previous work suggested urban-rural gradients in frost and snow depth could drive the evolution of reduced hydrogen cyanide (HCN) frequencies in urban populations. Here, we sampled over 700 urban and rural clover populations across 16 cities along a latitudinal transect in eastern North America. In each population, we quantified changes in the frequency of genotypes that produce HCN, and in a subset of the cities we estimated the frequency of the alleles at t

SUBMITTER: Santangelo JS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7293085 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature