Department of Zoology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
Mol Ecol. 2009 Dec;18(24):4997-5017. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-294X.2009.04427.x. Epub 2009 Nov 11.
The accessibility of new genomic resources, high-throughput molecular technologies and analytical approaches such as genome scans have made finding genes contributing to fitness variation in natural populations an increasingly feasible task. Once candidate genes are identified, we argue that it is necessary to take a mechanistic approach and work up through the levels of biological organization to fully understand the impacts of genetic variation at these candidate genes. We demonstrate how this approach provides testable hypotheses about the causal links among levels of biological organization, and assists in designing relevant experiments to test the effects of genetic variation on phenotype, whole-organism performance capabilities and fitness. We review some of the research programs that have incorporated mechanistic approaches when examining naturally occurring genetic and phenotypic variation and use these examples to highlight the value of developing a comprehensive understanding of the relationship between genotype and fitness. We give suggestions to guide future research aimed at uncovering and understanding the genetic basis of adaptation and argue that further integration of mechanistic approaches will help molecular ecologists better understand the evolution of natural populations.
新的基因组资源、高通量分子技术和基因组扫描等分析方法的可及性，使得在自然种群中寻找影响适应性变异的基因成为一项越来越可行的任务。一旦确定了候选基因，我们认为有必要采取一种机制方法，从生物组织的各个层次入手，以充分了解这些候选基因的遗传变异的影响。我们展示了这种方法如何提供关于生物组织各个层次之间因果关系的可测试假设，并有助于设计相关实验，以测试遗传变异对表型、整体生物性能和适应性的影响。我们回顾了一些在研究自然发生的遗传和表型变异时采用机制方法的研究计划，并使用这些例子强调了全面了解基因型和适应性之间关系的价值。我们提出了一些建议，以指导未来旨在揭示和理解适应遗传基础的研究，并认为进一步整合机制方法将有助于分子生态学家更好地理解自然种群的进化。
