Quantifying effects of environmental and geographical factors on patterns of genetic differentiation.

ABSTRACT: Elucidating the factors influencing genetic differentiation is an important task in biology, and the relative contribution from natural selection and genetic drift has long been debated. In this study, we used a regression-based approach to simultaneously estimate the quantitative contributions of environmental adaptation and isolation by distance on genetic variation in Boechera stricta, a wild relative of Arabidopsis. Patterns of discrete and continuous genetic differentiation coexist within this species. For the discrete differentiation between two major genetic groups, environment has larger contribution than geography, and we also identified a significant environment-by-geography interaction effect. Elsewhere in the species range, we found a latitudinal cline of genetic variation refl

SUBMITTER: Lee CR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3204174 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature