Adaptive introgression underlies polymorphic seasonal camouflage in snowshoe hares
Adaptive introgression underlies polymorphic seasonal camouflage in snowshoe hares
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DOI：
10.1126/science.aar5273
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发表时间：
2018-06-22
期刊：
影响因子：
56.9
通讯作者：
Good, Jeffrey M.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Jones, Matthew R.;Mills, L. Scott;Good, Jeffrey M.
雪鞋兔（美洲兔）通过蜕皮变成白色的冬衣来保持季节性的伪装，但有些兔子在冬季在积雪较低的地区仍然保持棕色。我们表明，控制Agglutinase基因的季节性表达的顺式调节变异是这种适应性冬季伪装多态性的基础。遗传变异聚集在Agrabus的冬季毛色在多个野兔和长耳野兔物种，揭示了一个历史的经常性种间基因流。雪鞋野兔的棕色冬衣可能起源于一种渗入的黑尾长耳大野兔等位基因，这种等位基因在温和的冬季环境中频率很高。这些发现表明，作为关键生态特征基础的遗传变异的渐渗可以为过去和正在进行的适应快速变化的环境奠定基础。
Snowshoe hares (Lepus americanus) maintain seasonal camouflage by molting to a white winter coat, but some hares remain brown during the winter in regions with low snow cover. We show that cis-regulatory variation controlling seasonal expression of the Agouti gene underlies this adaptive winter camouflage polymorphism. Genetic variation at Agouti clustered by winter coat color across multiple hare and jackrabbit species, revealing a history of recurrent interspecific gene flow. Brown winter coats in snowshoe hares likely originated from an introgressed black-tailed jackrabbit allele that has swept to high frequency in mild winter environments. These discoveries show that introgression of genetic variants that underlie key ecological traits can seed past and ongoing adaptation to rapidly changing environments.