Testing for fitness epistasis in a transplant experiment identifies a candidate adaptive locus in Timema stick insects.

ABSTRACT: Identifying the genetic basis of adaptation is a central goal of evolutionary biology. However, identifying genes and mutations affecting fitness remains challenging because a large number of traits and variants can influence fitness. Selected phenotypes can also be difficult to know a priori, complicating top-down genetic approaches for trait mapping that involve crosses or genome-wide association studies. In such cases, experimental genetic approaches, where one maps fitness directly and attempts to infer the traits involved afterwards, can be valuable. Here, we re-analyse data from a transplant experiment involving Timema stick insects, where five physically clustered single-nucleotide polymorphisms associated with cryptic body coloration were shown to interact to affect s

SUBMITTER: Villoutreix R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9149791 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature