Dr. Pádraic Flood
The Genetic Basis of Convergent Adaptation to Altitude in Arabidopsis thaliana
Abstract: Convergent evolution at the phenotypic level is well documented across the tree of life, however, it is not known how often this phenotypic convergence is due to convergence at the molecular level. Using populations of Arabidopsis thaliana which have adapted to the tropical alpine environment in East Africa we show that the phenotypic convergence we see across 6 mountain regions is underlain by molecular convergence at the gene level for three loci. In one case this convergence is due to structural variants which occur in a stepwise manner resulting in increased gene expression.