Data for: Adaptive tail-length evolution in deer mice is associated with differential Hoxd13 expression in early development

Variation in the size and number of axial segments underlies much of the diversity in animal body plans. Here, we investigate the evolutionary, genetic, and developmental mechanisms driving tail-length differences between forest and prairie ecotypes of deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus). We first show that long-tailed forest mice perform better in an arboreal locomotion assay, consistent with tails being important for balance during climbing. We then identify six genomic regions that contribute to differences in tail length, three of which associate with caudal vertebra length and the other three with vertebra number. For all six loci, the forest allele increases tail length, indicative of the cumulative effect of natural selection. Two of the genomic regions associated with variation in vertebra number contain Hox gene clusters. Of those, we find an allele-specific decrease in Hoxd13 expression in the embryonic tail bud of long-tailed forest mice, consistent with its role in axial elon..., Please see Methods in the main text, , # Data for: Adaptive tail-length evolution in deer mice is associated with differential Hoxd13 expression in early development

**File descriptions**

*NB_BW_F1_xray.csv*
Data for Figures 1D,E; 3D; S1A,B.

Measurements from radiographs of adult *P. maniculatus*. \"NA\" indicates no measurement for that element. Columns names indicate:

* subspp: *P.m. nubiterrae* (\"NB\"), *P. m. bairdii* (\"BW\") or NBxBW F1 (\"F1\")
* sex: determined by presence of uterus/testes
* s01–s04: sacral vertebral lengths (mm)
* ca01–ca28: caudal vertebral lengths (mm)
* ca_total: summed length of all caudal vertebrae (mm)
* count: number of caudal vertebrae
* maxvert: length of longest caudal vertebra (mm)
* s_total: summed length of all sacral vertebrae (mm)
* total: total animal length measured by ruler at necropsy (mm)
* body: total – ca_total (mm)

*NB_BW_voluntary_cross_data.csv*
Data for Figure 2C.

Results of rod-crossing assays performed on adult *P. maniculatus* (see Methods). \"NA\" indicates t...