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The molecular genetic basis of plant adaptation¹

²Department of Genetics, Box 7614, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695 USA; ³Department of Biology and Center for Comparative, Functional Genomics, New York University, 100 Washington Square East, New York, New York 10003 USA

ABSTRACT

How natural selection on adaptive traits is filtered to the genetic level remains largely unknown. Theory and quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping have provided insights into the number and effect of genes underlying adaptations, but these results have been hampered by questions of applicability to real biological systems and poor resolution, respectively. Advances in molecular technologies have expedited the cloning of adaptive genes through both forward and reverse genetic approaches. Forward approaches start with adaptive traits and attempt to characterize their underlying genetic architectures through linkage disequilibrium mapping, QTL mapping, and other methods. Reverse screens search large sequence data sets for genes that possess the signature of selection. Though both approaches have been successful in identifying adaptive genes in plants, very few, if any, of these adaptations' molecular bases have been fully resolved. The continued isolation of plant adaptive genes will lead to a more comprehensive understanding of natural selection's effect on genes and genomes.

Key Words: evolutionary genetics • genetic variation • genomics • natural selection • plant molecular evolution • polymorphisms

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