Genetic assimilation of ancestral plasticity during parallel adaptation to zinc contamination in Silene uniflora.

ABSTRACT: Phenotypic plasticity in ancestral populations is hypothesized to facilitate adaptation, but evidence is piecemeal and often contradictory. Further, whether ancestral plasticity increases the probability of parallel adaptive changes has not been explored. The most general finding is that ancestral responses to a new environment are reversed following adaptation (known as reversion). We investigated the contribution of ancestral plasticity to adaptive evolution of gene expression in two independently evolved lineages of zinc-tolerant Silene uniflora. We found that the general pattern of reversion is driven by the absence of a widespread stress response in zinc-adapted plants compared with zinc-sensitive plants. We show that ancestral plasticity that moves expression closer to the optimum va

SUBMITTER: Wood DP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9998271 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature