Data from: Detection of evolutionary conserved and accelerated genomic regions related to adaptation to thermal niches in Anolis lizards

Understanding the genetic basis for adapting to thermal environments is
important due to the serious effects of global warming on ectothermic
species. Various genes associated with thermal adaptation in lizards have
been identified mainly focusing on changes in gene expression or the
detection of positively selected genes using coding regions. Only a few
comprehensive genome-wide analyses have included noncoding regions. This
study aimed to identify evolutionarily conserved and accelerated genomic
regions using whole genomes of eight Anolis lizard species that
have repeatedly adapted to similar thermal environments in multiple
lineages. Evolutionarily conserved genomic regions were extracted as
regions with overall sequence conservation (regions with fewer base
substitutions) across all lineages compared with the neutral model.
Genomic regions that underwent accelerated evolution in the lineage of
interest were identified as those with more base substitutions in the
target branch than in the entire background branch. Conserved elements
across all branches were relatively abundant in “intergenic” genomic
regions among noncoding regions. Accelerated regions (ARs) of each lineage
contained a significantly greater proportion of noncoding RNA genes than
the entire multiple alignments. Common genes containing ARs within 5 kb of
their vicinity in lineages with similar thermal habitats were identified.
Many genes associated with circadian rhythms and behavior were found in
hot-open and cool-shaded habitat lineages. These genes might play a role
in contributing to thermal adaptation and assist future studies examining
the function of genes involved in thermal adaptation via genome editing.