Molecular Adaptation during a Rapid Adaptive Radiation

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Abstract

“Explosive” adaptive radiations on islands remain one of the most puzzling evolutionary phenomena and the evolutionary genetic processes behind such radiations remain unclear. Rapid morphological and ecological evolution during island radiations suggests that many genes may be under fairly strong selection, although this remains untested. Here, we report that during a rapid recent diversification in the Hawaiian endemic plant genus Schiedea ( Caryophyllaceae), 5 in 36 studied genes evolved under positive selection. Positively selected genes are involved in defence mechanisms, photosynthesis, and reproduction. Comparison with eight mainland plant groups demonstrates both the relaxation of purifying selection and more widespread positive selection in Hawaiian Schiedea. This provides compelling evidence that adaptive evolution of protein-coding genes may play a significant role during island adaptive radiations.

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Evolution of genes and genomes on the Drosophila phylogeny.

Andrew G Clark, Michael B Eisen, Douglas R Smith … (2007)

Comparative analysis of multiple genomes in a phylogenetic framework dramatically improves the precision and sensitivity of evolutionary inference, producing more robust results than single-genome analyses can provide. The genomes of 12 Drosophila species, ten of which are presented here for the first time (sechellia, simulans, yakuba, erecta, ananassae, persimilis, willistoni, mojavensis, virilis and grimshawi), illustrate how rates and patterns of sequence divergence across taxa can illuminate evolutionary processes on a genomic scale. These genome sequences augment the formidable genetic tools that have made Drosophila melanogaster a pre-eminent model for animal genetics, and will further catalyse fundamental research on mechanisms of development, cell biology, genetics, disease, neurobiology, behaviour, physiology and evolution. Despite remarkable similarities among these Drosophila species, we identified many putatively non-neutral changes in protein-coding genes, non-coding RNA genes, and cis-regulatory regions. These may prove to underlie differences in the ecology and behaviour of these diverse species.

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The genetics of human adaptation: hard sweeps, soft sweeps, and polygenic adaptation.

Jonathan Pritchard, Joseph Pickrell, Graham Coop (2010)

There has long been interest in understanding the genetic basis of human adaptation. To what extent are phenotypic differences among human populations driven by natural selection? With the recent arrival of large genome-wide data sets on human variation, there is now unprecedented opportunity for progress on this type of question. Several lines of evidence argue for an important role of positive selection in shaping human variation and differences among populations. These include studies of comparative morphology and physiology, as well as population genetic studies of candidate loci and genome-wide data. However, the data also suggest that it is unusual for strong selection to drive new mutations rapidly to fixation in particular populations (the 'hard sweep' model). We argue, instead, for alternatives to the hard sweep model: in particular, polygenic adaptation could allow rapid adaptation while not producing classical signatures of selective sweeps. We close by discussing some of the likely opportunities for progress in the field. Copyright 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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Do island populations have less genetic variation than mainland populations?

R Frankham (1997)

Island populations are much more prone to extinction than mainland populations. The reasons for this remain controversial. If inbreeding and loss of genetic variation are involved, then genetic variation must be lower on average in island than mainland populations. Published data on levels of genetic variation for allozymes, nuclear DNA markers, mitochondrial DNA, inversions and quantitative characters in island and mainland populations were analysed. A large and highly significant majority of island populations have less allozyme genetic variation than their mainland counterparts (165 of 202 comparisons), the average reduction being 29 per cent. The magnitude of differences was related to dispersal ability. There were related differences for all the other measures. Island endemic species showed lower genetic variation than related mainland species in 34 of 38 cases. The proportionate reduction in genetic variation was significantly greater in island endemic than in nonendemic island populations in mammals and birds, but not in insects. Genetic factors cannot be discounted as a cause of higher extinction rates of island than mainland populations.

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Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Mol Biol Evol

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Mol. Biol. Evol

Journal ID (publisher-id): molbev

Journal ID (hwp): molbiolevol

Title: Molecular Biology and Evolution

Publisher: Oxford University Press

ISSN (Print): 0737-4038

ISSN (Electronic): 1537-1719

Publication date (Print): May 2013

Publication date (Electronic): 25 January 2013

Publication date PMC-release: 25 January 2013

Volume: 30

Issue: 5

Pages: 1051-1059

Affiliations

Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom

Author notes

*Corresponding author: E-mail: dmitry.filatov@ 123456plants.ox.ac.uk .

Associate editor: John H. McDonald

All new sequences have been submitted to GenBank (accession nos. AB776996–AB777171, AB777582–AB777643, AB776797–AB776819, AB776911–AB776990, HF569047–HF569073, HF571346–HF571518, HF582909–HF583243).

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Publisher ID: mst013

DOI: 10.1093/molbev/mst013

PMC ID: 3670742

PubMed ID: 23355532

SO-VID: e3101c2d-9d28-4a90-97b2-9fe9465bf391

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This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Molecular Adaptation during a Rapid Adaptive Radiation

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Most cited references 53

Evolution of genes and genomes on the Drosophila phylogeny.

The genetics of human adaptation: hard sweeps, soft sweeps, and polygenic adaptation.

Do island populations have less genetic variation than mainland populations?

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