Inter and Intraspecific Genomic Divergence in Drosophila montana Shows Evidence for Cold Adaptation

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DOI

  • Darren J Parker
    Jyväskylä UniversityUniversity of St. AndrewsUniversity of Lausanne
  • R Axel W Wiberg
    University of St. Andrews
  • Urmi Trivedi
    Edinburgh Napier University
  • Venera I Tyukmaeva
    Jyväskylä University
  • Karim Gharbi
    Edinburgh Napier University
  • Roger K Butlin
    University of Sheffield
  • Anneli Hoikkala
    Jyväskylä University
  • Maaria Kankare
    Jyväskylä University
  • Michael G Ritchie
    University of St. Andrews

The genomes of species that are ecological specialists will likely contain signatures of genomic adaptation to their niche. However, distinguishing genes related to ecological specialism from other sources of selection and more random changes is a challenge. Here, we describe the genome of Drosophila montana, which is the most extremely cold-adapted Drosophila species known. We use branch tests to identify genes showing accelerated divergence in contrasts between cold- and warm-adapted species and identify about 250 genes that show differences, possibly driven by a lower synonymous substitution rate in cold-adapted species. We also look for evidence of accelerated divergence between D. montana and D. virilis, a previously sequenced relative, but do not find strong evidence for divergent selection on coding sequence variation. Divergent genes are involved in a variety of functions, including cuticular and olfactory processes. Finally, we also resequenced three populations of D. montana from across its ecological and geographic range. Outlier loci were more likely to be found on the X chromosome and there was a greater than expected overlap between population outliers and those genes implicated in cold adaptation between Drosophila species, implying some continuity of selective process at these different evolutionary scales.

Keywords

  • Acclimatization, Animals, Cold Temperature, Diapause, Drosophila/classification, Genome, Insect, Molecular Sequence Annotation, Phylogeny
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2086-2101
Number of pages16
JournalGenome Biology and Evolution
Volume10
Issue number8
Early online date13 Jul 2018
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Aug 2018
Externally publishedYes
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