Multiple Genetic Trajectories to Extreme Abiotic Stress Adaptation in Arctic Brassicaceae.

ABSTRACT: Extreme environments offer powerful opportunities to study how different organisms have adapted to similar selection pressures at the molecular level. Arctic plants have adapted to some of the coldest and driest biomes on Earth and typically possess suites of similar morphological and physiological adaptations to extremes in light and temperature. Here, we compare patterns of molecular evolution in three Brassicaceae species that have independently colonized the Arctic and present some of the first genetic evidence for plant adaptations to the Arctic environment. By testing for positive selection and identifying convergent substitutions in orthologous gene alignments for a total of 15 Brassicaceae species, we find that positive selection has been acting on different genes, but similar func

SUBMITTER: Birkeland S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7306683 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature