Laboratoire d'Ecologie Alpine (LECA), CNRS UMR 5553, Grenoble Université, BP 53, 2233 Rue de la Piscine, 38041 Grenoble Cedex 9, France.
Mol Ecol. 2010 Jul;19(14):2896-907. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-294X.2010.04696.x. Epub 2010 Jul 1.
Understanding the genetic basis of adaptation in response to environmental variation is fundamental as adaptation plays a key role in the extension of ecological niches to marginal habitats and in ecological speciation. Based on the assumption that some genomic markers are correlated to environmental variables, we aimed to detect loci of ecological relevance in the alpine plant Arabis alpina L. sampled in two regions, the French (99 locations) and the Swiss (109 locations) Alps. We used an unusually large genome scan [825 amplified fragment length polymorphism loci (AFLPs)] and four environmental variables related to temperature, precipitation and topography. We detected linkage disequilibrium among only 3.5% of the considered AFLP loci. A population structure analysis identified no admixture in the study regions, and the French and Swiss Alps were differentiated and therefore could be considered as two independent regions. We applied generalized estimating equations (GEE) to detect ecologically relevant loci separately in the French and Swiss Alps. We identified 78 loci of ecological relevance (9%), which were mainly related to mean annual minimum temperature. Only four of these loci were common across the French and Swiss Alps. Finally, we discuss that the genomic characterization of these ecologically relevant loci, as identified in this study, opens up new perspectives for studying functional ecology in A. alpina, its relatives and other alpine plant species.
了解适应环境变化的遗传基础至关重要，因为适应在扩展生态位到边缘生境和生态物种形成中起着关键作用。基于某些基因组标记与环境变量相关的假设，我们旨在检测在高山植物拟南芥中与生态相关的基因座，该植物在法国（99 个地点）和瑞士（109 个地点）阿尔卑斯山进行了采样。我们使用了异常大的基因组扫描[825 个扩增片段长度多态性（AFLP）位点]和四个与温度、降水和地形有关的环境变量。我们只检测到了所考虑的 AFLP 位点中 3.5%的连锁不平衡。种群结构分析表明，在研究区域中没有混合，法国和瑞士阿尔卑斯山是分化的，因此可以被认为是两个独立的区域。我们分别在法国和瑞士阿尔卑斯山应用广义估计方程（GEE）来检测生态相关的基因座。我们确定了 78 个具有生态相关性的基因座（9%），这些基因座主要与年平均最低温度有关。这些基因座中只有四个在法国和瑞士阿尔卑斯山都存在。最后，我们讨论了这些生态相关基因座的基因组特征，如本研究中所确定的，为研究拟南芥及其亲缘关系和其他高山植物物种的功能生态学开辟了新的前景。
