Publications by authors named "Carlos Rodriguez-Ramirez"
A main goal of evolutionary biology is to understand the genetic basis of adaptive evolution. Although the genes that underlie some adaptive phenotypes are now known, the molecular pathways and regulatory mechanisms mediating the phenotypic effects of those genes often remain a black box. Unveiling this black box is necessary to fully understand the genetic basis of adaptive phenotypes, and to understand why particular genes might be used during phenotypic evolution.
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- Local adaptation may lead to a concentrated genetic architecture, where key alleles for traits are found close together on chromosomes, as seen in the evolution of threespine stickleback fish adapting to marine versus freshwater habitats.
- The study examined genomic rearrangements to understand how these "genomic islands" formed, using comparative analysis with the closely related tubesnout and other species.
- Findings showed that smaller rearrangements and lineage-specific genes are more common near these adaptive loci, suggesting that selection pressures on certain genes may have led to their clustering through genomic changes.