Genomic gigantism is not associated with reduced selection efficiency in Neotropical salamanders

The primary nonadaptive hypothesis for genome size increase posits weak selection in small populations that results in accumulation of repetitive elements by genetic drift. We use a transcriptomic dataset for the vertebrate group with the widest variation in genome size, the Neotropical plethodontid salamanders, to test this hypothesis.

关于基因组大小扩增的主流非适应性假说（nonadaptive hypothesis）认为，小型种群中的弱选择会通过遗传漂变（genetic drift）导致重复序列元件的积累。我们采用基因组大小变异范围最广的脊椎动物类群——新热带区无肺螈科蝾螈（Neotropical plethodontid salamanders）的转录组数据集（transcriptomic dataset），来检验这一假说。