Long-Term Balancing Selection and the Genetic Load Linked to the Self-Incompatibility Locus in Arabidopsis halleri and A. lyrata.

Balancing selection is a form of natural selection maintaining diversity at the sites it targets and at linked nucleotide sites. Due to selection favoring heterozygosity, it has the potential to facilitate the accumulation of a "sheltered" load of tightly linked recessive deleterious mutations. However, precisely evaluating the extent of these effects has remained challenging.

Approximate Bayesian Computation Untangles Signatures of Contemporary and Historical Hybridization between Two Endangered Species.

Contemporary gene flow, when resumed after a period of isolation, can have crucial consequences for endangered species, as it can both increase the supply of adaptive alleles and erode local adaptation. Determining the history of gene flow and thus the importance of contemporary hybridization, however, is notoriously difficult. Here, we focus on two endangered plant species, Arabis nemorensis and A.

Cis-regulatory evolution spotlights species differences in the adaptive potential of gene expression plasticity.

Phenotypic plasticity is the variation in phenotype that a single genotype can produce in different environments and, as such, is an important component of individual fitness. However, whether the effect of new mutations, and hence evolution, depends on the direction of plasticity remains controversial. Here, we identify the cis-acting modifications that have reshaped gene expression in response to dehydration stress in three Arabidopsis species.