Genetic heterogeneity among intertidal habitats in the flat periwinkle, Littorina obtusata.

Comparisons among patterns exhibited by functionally distinct genetic markers have been widely used to infer the impacts of demography and selection in structuring genetic variation in natural populations. However, such multilocus comparisons remain an indirect evaluation of selection at particular candidate loci; ideally, the identification of a candidate gene by comparative genetic methodologies should be complemented by functional analyses and experimental manipulations of genotypes in the laboratory or field. We examined genotype frequency variation among replicated intertidal habitats at two spatial scales in the grazing snail Littorina obtusata.