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Polygenic routes lead to parallel altitudinal adaptation in Heliosperma pusillum (Caryophyllaceae)

View ORCID ProfileAglaia Szukala, Jessica Lovegrove-Walsh, View ORCID ProfileHirzi Luqman, View ORCID ProfileSimone Fior, View ORCID ProfileThomas Wolfe, View ORCID ProfileBožo Frajman, View ORCID ProfilePeter Schönswetter, View ORCID ProfileOvidiu Paun
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.07.05.451094
Aglaia Szukala
1Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
2Vienna Graduate School of Population Genetics, Vienna, Austria
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  • For correspondence: aglaia.szukala@univie.ac.at ovidiu.paun@univie.ac.at
Jessica Lovegrove-Walsh
1Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
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Hirzi Luqman
4Department of Environmental System Science, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
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Simone Fior
4Department of Environmental System Science, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
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Thomas Wolfe
5Institute for Forest Entomology, Forest Pathology and Forest Protection, BOKU, Vienna, Austria
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Božo Frajman
3Department of Botany, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
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Peter Schönswetter
3Department of Botany, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
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Ovidiu Paun
1Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
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  • For correspondence: aglaia.szukala@univie.ac.at ovidiu.paun@univie.ac.at
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Abstract

Understanding how organisms adapt to the environment is a major goal of modern biology. Parallel evolution - the independent evolution of similar phenotypes in different populations - provides a powerful framework to explore this question. Here, we quantified the degree of gene expression and functional parallelism across replicated ecotype formation in Heliosperma pusillum (Caryophyllaceae) and gained insights into the architecture of adaptive traits. Population structure analyses and demographic modelling confirm the previously formulated hypothesis of parallel polytopic divergence of montane and alpine ecotypes. We detect a large proportion of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) underlying adaptation of each replicate ecotype pair, with a strikingly low amount of shared DEGs across pairs. Functional enrichment of DEGs reveals that the traits affected by divergent gene expression are the same across ecotype pairs, in strong contrast to the non-shared genetic basis. The remarkable redundancy of differential gene expression indicates that diverged adaptive traits are highly polygenic. We conclude that polygenic traits appear key to opening multiple routes for adaptation, widening the adaptive potential of organisms.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

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The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
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Posted July 06, 2021.
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Polygenic routes lead to parallel altitudinal adaptation in Heliosperma pusillum (Caryophyllaceae)
Aglaia Szukala, Jessica Lovegrove-Walsh, Hirzi Luqman, Simone Fior, Thomas Wolfe, Božo Frajman, Peter Schönswetter, Ovidiu Paun
bioRxiv 2021.07.05.451094; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.07.05.451094
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Polygenic routes lead to parallel altitudinal adaptation in Heliosperma pusillum (Caryophyllaceae)
Aglaia Szukala, Jessica Lovegrove-Walsh, Hirzi Luqman, Simone Fior, Thomas Wolfe, Božo Frajman, Peter Schönswetter, Ovidiu Paun
bioRxiv 2021.07.05.451094; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.07.05.451094

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