Selection for population specific adaptation has shaped patterns of variation in the photoperiod pathway genes in Arabidopsis lyrata during post glacial colonization

Spatially varying selection can lead to population-specific adaptation, which is often recognized at the phenotypic level; however, the genetic evidence is weaker in many groups of organisms. In plants, environmental shifts that occur due to colonization of a novel environment may require adaptive changes in the timing of growth and flowering, which are often governed by location-specific environmental cues such as day length. We studied locally varying selection in 19 flowering time loci in nine populations of the perennial herb Arabidopsis lyrata, which has a wide but patchy distribution in temperate and boreal regions of the northern hemisphere. The populations differ in their recent population demographic and colonization histories and current environmental conditions, especially in the growing season length. We searched for population-specific molecular signatures of directional selection by comparing a set of candidate flowering time loci with a genomic reference set within each p...

空间异质性选择（spatially varying selection）可引发种群特异性适应，此类适应常可在表型层面被观测到；但多数生物类群的相关遗传证据仍较为薄弱。在植物中，因拓殖新环境所引发的环境变化，往往需要植株在生长与开花时序上发生适应性改变——此类时序通常受光周期等局域特异性环境信号调控。本研究以9个种群的多年生草本植物 lyrate拟南芥（Arabidopsis lyrata）为研究对象，该物种在北半球温带与寒带区域分布广泛但呈斑块状。我们针对其19个开花时间基因座（flowering time loci）开展局域异质性选择相关研究。这些种群在近期的种群动态与拓殖历史，以及当前的环境条件（尤其生长季长度）方面均存在差异。我们通过在每个p（原文未完成）内，将一组候选开花时间基因座与基因组参照数据集进行比对，以此搜寻定向选择的种群特异性分子特征。