Data from: The loci of repeated evolution: a catalogue of genetic hotspots of phenotypic variation

What is the nature of the genetic changes underlying phenotypic evolution?
We have catalogued 1008 alleles described in the literature that cause
phenotypic differences among animals, plants and yeasts. Surprisingly,
evolution of similar traits in distinct lineages often involves mutations
in the same gene (“gene reuse”). This compilation yields three important
qualitative implications about repeated evolution. First, the apparent
evolution of similar traits by gene reuse can be traced back to two
alternatives, either several independent causative mutations or a single
original mutational event followed by sorting processes. Second, hotspots
of evolution – defined as the repeated occurrence of de novo mutations at
orthologous loci and causing similar phenotypic variation – are
omnipresent in the literature with more than 100 examples covering various
levels of analysis, including numerous gain-of-function events. Third,
several alleles of large effect have been shown to result from the
aggregation of multiple small-effect mutations at the same hotspot locus,
thus reconciling micro-mutationist theories of adaptation with the
empirical observation of large-effect variants. While data heterogeneity
and experimental biases prevented us from extracting quantitative trends,
our synthesis highlights the existence of genetic paths of least
resistance leading to viable evolutionary change.