Hybridization alters the shape of the genotypic fitness landscape, increasing access to novel fitness peaks during adaptive radiation.

ABSTRACT: Estimating the complex relationship between fitness and genotype or phenotype (i.e. the adaptive landscape) is one of the central goals of evolutionary biology. However, adaptive walks connecting genotypes to organismal fitness, speciation, and novel ecological niches are still poorly understood and processes for surmounting fitness valleys remain controversial. One outstanding system for addressing these connections is a recent adaptive radiation of ecologically and morphologically novel pupfishes (a generalist, molluscivore, and scale-eater) endemic to San Salvador Island, Bahamas. We leveraged whole-genome sequencing of 139 hybrids from two independent field fitness experiments to identify the genomic basis of fitness, estimate genotypic fitness networks, and measure the accessibility o

SUBMITTER: Patton AH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9135402 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature