The population genomics of sunflowers and genomic determinants of protein evolution revealed by RNAseq

Few studies have investigated the causes of evolutionary rate variation among plant nuclear genes, especially in recently diverged species still capable of hybridizing in the wild. The recent advent of Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) permits investigation of genome wide rates of protein evolution and the role of selection in generating and maintaining divergence. Here, we use individual whole-transcriptome sequencing (RNAseq) to refine our understanding of the population genomics of a wild species of sunflowers (Helianthus spp.) and the factors that affect rates of protein evolution. We aligned 35 GB of transcriptome sequencing data and identified 433,257 polymorphic sites (SNPs) in a reference transcriptome comprising 16,312 genes. Using SNP markers, we identified strong population clustering largely corresponding to the three species analyzed here (Helianthus annuus, H. petiolaris, H. debilis), with one distinct early generation hybrid. Then, we calculated the proportions of adaptive...