Journal
SCIENCE
Volume 363, Issue 6426, Pages 499-+Publisher
AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1126/science.aav3824
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
- Foundational Questions in Evolutionary Biology Postdoctoral Fellowship
- Canada Research Chair
- Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
- Swiss National Science Foundation Sinergia grant
- National Geographic Society
- Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ)
- National Engineering and Research Council of Canada
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Adaptive evolution in new or changing environments can be difficult to predict because the functional connections between genotype, phenotype, and fitness are complex. Here, we make these explicit connections by combining field and laboratory experiments in wild mice. We first directly estimate natural selection on pigmentation traits and an underlying pigment locus, Agouti, by using experimental enclosures of mice on different soil colors. Next, we show how a mutation in Agouti associated with survival causes lighter coat color through changes in its protein binding properties. Together, our findings demonstrate how a sequence variant alters phenotype and then reveal the ensuing ecological consequences that drive changes in population allele frequency, thereby illuminating the process of evolution by natural selection.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available