Data from: Detecting selection on temporal and spatial scales: a genomic time-series assessment of selective responses to devil facial tumor disease

Detecting loci under selection is an important task in evolutionary
biology. In conservation genetics detecting selection is key to
investigating adaptation to the spread of infectious disease. Loci under
selection can be detected on a spatial scale, accounting for differences
in demographic history among populations, or on a temporal scale, tracing
changes in allele frequencies over time. Here we use these two approaches
to investigate selective responses to the spread of an infectious
cancer—devil facial tumor disease (DFTD)—that since 1996 has ravaged the
Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii). Using time-series ‘restriction
site associated DNA’ (RAD) markers from populations pre- and post DFTD
arrival, and DFTD free populations, we infer loci under selection due to
DFTD and investigate signatures of selection that are incongruent among
methods, populations, and times. The lack of congruence among populations
influenced by DFTD with respect to inferred loci under selection, and the
direction of that selection, fail to implicate a consistent selective role
for DFTD. Instead genetic drift is more likely driving the observed allele
frequency changes over time. Our study illustrates the importance of
applying methods with different performance optima e.g. accounting for
population structure and background selection, and assessing congruence of
the results.