Biased Gene Conversion Constrains Adaptation in Arabidopsis thaliana.

ABSTRACT: Reduction of fitness due to deleterious mutations imposes a limit to adaptive evolution. By characterizing features that influence this genetic load we may better understand constraints on responses to both natural and human-mediated selection. Here, using whole-genome, transcriptome, and methylome data from >600 Arabidopsis thaliana individuals, we set out to identify important features influencing selective constraint. Our analyses reveal that multiple factors underlie the accumulation of maladaptive mutations, including gene expression level, gene network connectivity, and gene-body methylation. We then focus on a feature with major effect, nucleotide composition. The ancestral vs. derived status of segregating alleles suggests that GC-biased gene conversion, a recombinati

SUBMITTER: Hamala T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7337087 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature