Adapting to winter in wheat: a long-term study follows parallel phenotypic and genetic changes in three experimental wheat populations

Molecular Ecology
Jared L Strasburg, B L Gross

Abstract

Drawing a direct connection between adaptive evolution at the phenotypic level and underlying genetic factors has long been a major goal of evolutionary biologists, but the genetic characterization of adaptive traits in natural populations is notoriously difficult. The study of evolution in experimental populations offers some help - initial conditions are known and changes can be tracked for extended periods under conditions more controlled than wild populations and more realistic than laboratory or greenhouse experiments. In this issue of Molecular Ecology, researchers studying experimental wheat populations over a 12-year period have demonstrated evolution in a major adaptive trait, flowering time, and parallel changes in underlying genetic variation (Rhoné et al. 2008). Their work suggests that cis-regulatory mutations at a single gene may explain most of the flowering time variation in these populations.

References

Apr 2, 2004·BioEssays : News and Reviews in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology·Jo PutterillRichard Macknight
Oct 14, 2004·TAG. Theoretical and applied genetics. Theoretische und angewandte Genetik·L YanJ Dubcovsky
Oct 27, 2004·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Ana L CaicedoMichael D Purugganan
Feb 4, 2005·Molecular Genetics and Genomics : MGG·Daolin FuJorge Dubcovsky
Aug 2, 2005·Plant Physiology·Artem LoukoianovJorge Dubcovsky
Feb 17, 2007·Nature Reviews. Genetics·Gregory A Wray
Jan 16, 2008·Molecular Ecology·Bénédicte RhonéIsabelle Bonnin
Aug 1, 1998·Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution·H Allen Orr

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