Search for evolutionary capacitor and its adaptive potential

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

A conceptual machinery called an evolutionary capacitor buffers genetic and environmental perturbations and keeps genetic variation cryptic, accumulating mutations in a population. In the current study, I used Drosophila melanogaster as a study material, and searched for genomic regions that regulated natural genetic variation in wing morphology using isogenic deficiency strains. As a result, multiple genomic regions were shown to affect quantitative genetic variation and significantly increased broad-sense heritability of wing shape. In addition, several genomic deletions revealed qualitative cryptic genetic variation in wing morphology such as extra wing compartment, lack of wing vein etc. These results indicate the existence of multiple capacitors for natural genetic variation, and the genomic regions with effect on natural genetic variation may encompass candidate genes for evolutionary capacitors.