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Convergent genomic signatures of local adaptation across a continental-scale environmental gradient.

ABSTRACT: Convergent local adaptation offers a glimpse into the role of constraint and stochasticity in adaptive evolution, in particular the extent to which similar genetic mechanisms drive adaptation to common selective forces. Here, we investigated the genomics of local adaptation in two nonsister woodpeckers that are codistributed across an entire continent and exhibit remarkably convergent patterns of geographic variation. We sequenced the genomes of 140 individuals of Downy (Dryobates pubescens) and Hairy (Dryobates villosus) woodpeckers and used a suite of genomic approaches to identify loci under selection. We showed evidence that convergent genes have been targeted by selection in response to shared environmental pressures, such as temperature and precipitation. Among candidates, we found multiple genes putatively linked to key phenotypic adaptations to climate, including differences in body size (e.g., IGFPB) and plumage (e.g., MREG). These results are consistent with genetic constraints limiting the pathways of adaptation to broad climatic gradients, even after genetic backgrounds diverge.

SUBMITTER: Moreira LR

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10198635 | biostudies-literature | 2023 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Convergent genomic signatures of local adaptation across a continental-scale environmental gradient.

Moreira Lucas R LR Smith Brian Tilston BT

Science advances 20230519 20

Convergent local adaptation offers a glimpse into the role of constraint and stochasticity in adaptive evolution, in particular the extent to which similar genetic mechanisms drive adaptation to common selective forces. Here, we investigated the genomics of local adaptation in two nonsister woodpeckers that are codistributed across an entire continent and exhibit remarkably convergent patterns of geographic variation. We sequenced the genomes of 140 individuals of Downy (<i>Dryobates pubescens</ ...[more]

PMID: 37205757

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Project description:BackgroundLodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) and interior spruce (Picea glauca, Picea engelmannii, and their hybrids) are distantly related conifer species. Previous studies identified 47 genes containing variants associated with environmental variables in both species, providing evidence of convergent local adaptation. However, if the intensity of purifying selection varies with the environment, clines in nucleotide diversity could evolve through linked (background) selection that would yield allele frequency-environment signatures resembling local adaptation. If similar geographic patterns in the strength of purifying selection occur in these species, this could result in the convergent signatures of local adaptation, especially if the landscape of recombination is conserved. In the present study, we investigated whether spatially/environmentally varying purifying selection could give rise to the convergent signatures of local adaptation that had previously reported.ResultsWe analyzed 86 lodgepole pine and 50 interior spruce natural populations spanning heterogeneous environments in western Canada where previous analyses had found signatures of convergent local adaptation. We estimated nucleotide diversity and Tajima's D for each gene within each population and calculated the strength of correlations between nucleotide diversity and environmental variables. Overall, these estimates in the genes with previously identified convergent local adaptation signatures had no similar pattern between pine and spruce. Clines in nucleotide diversity along environmental variables were found for interior spruce, but not for lodgepole pine. In spruce, genes with convergent adaption signatures showed a higher strength of correlations than genes without convergent adaption signatures, but there was no such disparity in pine, which suggests the pattern in spruce may have arisen due to a combination of selection and hybridization.ConclusionsThe results rule out purifying/background selection as a driver of convergent local adaption signatures in lodgepole pine and interior spruce.

Dataset Information

Convergent genomic signatures of local adaptation across a continental-scale environmental gradient.

Publications

Convergent genomic signatures of local adaptation across a continental-scale environmental gradient.

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