Selection on adaptive and maladaptive gene expression plasticity during thermal adaptation to urban heat islands.

ABSTRACT: Phenotypic plasticity enables a single genotype to produce multiple phenotypes in response to environmental variation. Plasticity may play a critical role in the colonization of novel environments, but its role in adaptive evolution is controversial. Here we suggest that rapid parallel regulatory adaptation of Anolis lizards to urban heat islands is due primarily to selection for reduced and/or reversed heat-induced plasticity that is maladaptive in urban thermal conditions. We identify evidence for polygenic selection across genes of the skeletal muscle transcriptome associated with heat tolerance. Forest lizards raised in common garden conditions exhibit heat-induced changes in expression of these genes that largely correlate with decreased heat tolerance, consistent with maladaptive reg

SUBMITTER: Campbell-Staton SC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8548502 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature