ArticleMolecular ecology2022
Pleiotropy facilitates parallel adaptation in sticklebacks.
Article in Molecular ecology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers.
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30 citing papers in PubMed, 52 citations in OpenAlex.
- Genomic Signatures of Selection Are Enriched in Differentially Expressed Genes in Sticklebacks Adapting to Contrasting Environments.Genome biology and evolution · 2026Article
- Gene-level complexity explains genome-wide variation in the distribution of fitness effects.Molecular biology and evolution · 2026Article
- Regionally specific and highly pleiotropic loci together mediate skeletal evolution in tropical and temperate house mice.Genetics · 2026Article
- Analysis of multi-trait evolution across independently evolved cavefish populations reveals shared and independent evolution of suites of traits.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2026Article
- Pleiotropy and Facilitation of Local Adaptation in the Silverleaf Sunflower Helianthus argophyllus.Genome biology and evolution · 2026Article
- The Genomics of Convergent Adaptation to Intertidal Gravel Beaches in Mediterranean Clingfishes.Genome biology and evolution · 2026Article
- Cave evolution on repeat: reuse of the same genomic regions across lineages but not across traits inbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Estimates of molecular convergence reveal multiple genes with adaptive variation across teleost fish.Molecular biology and evolution · 2026Article
- Gene expression evolution is predicted by stronger indirect selection at more pleiotropic genes.Evolution letters · 2025Article
- Identifying the Degree of Gene Reuse During Repeated Adaptation.Molecular ecology · 2025Review
- Whole-Genome Duplication Reshapes Adaptation: Autotetraploid Arabidopsis arenosa Leverages its High Genetic Variation to Compensate for Selection Constraints.Molecular biology and evolution · 2025Article
- Analysis of multi-trait evolution across independently evolved cavefish populations reveals shared and independent evolution of suites of cave-associated traits.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Flexibility in Gene Coexpression at Developmental and Evolutionary Timescales.Molecular biology and evolution · 2025Article
- Unique genetic bases of repeated life-history divergence associated with high altitude adaptation inbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Molecular mechanisms of Eda-mediated adaptation to freshwater in threespine stickleback.Molecular ecology · 2025Article
- The Role of Alternative Splicing in Marine-Freshwater Divergence in Threespine Stickleback.Genome biology and evolution · 2025Article
- Pleiotropy increases parallel selection signatures during adaptation from standing genetic variation.eLife · 2025Article
- Mutations in the albinism gene oca2 alter vision-dependent prey capture behavior in the Mexican tetra.The Journal of experimental biology · 2025Article
- The interplay between epigenomic and transcriptomic variation during ecotype divergence in stickleback.BMC biology · 2025Article
- Repeated global adaptation across plant species.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Highly pleiotropic genes are predicted to be used less often during adaptation, as mutations in these loci are more likely to have negative fitness consequences. Following this logic, we tested whether pleiotropy impacts the probability that a locus will be used repeatedly in adaptation. We used two proxies to estimate pleiotropy: number of phenotypic traits affected by a given genomic region and gene connectivity. We first surveyed 16 independent stream-lake and three independent benthic-limnetic ecotype pairs of threespine stickleback to estimate genome-wide patterns in parallel genomic differentiation. Our analysis revealed parallel divergence across the genome; 30%-37% of outlier regions were shared between at least two independent pairs in either the stream-lake or benthic-limnetic comparisons. We then tested whether parallel genomic regions are less pleiotropic than nonparallel regions. Counter to our a priori prediction, parallel genomic regions contained genes with significantly more pleiotropy; that is, influencing a greater number of traits and more highly connected. The increased pleiotropy of parallel regions could not be explained by other genomic factors, as there was no significant difference in mean gene count, mutation or recombination rates between parallel and nonparallel regions. Interestingly, although nonparallel regions contained genes that were less connected and influenced fewer mapped traits on average than parallel regions, they also tended to contain the genes that were predicted to be the most pleiotropic. Taken together, our findings are consistent with the idea that pleiotropy only becomes constraining at high levels and that low or intermediate levels of pleiotropy may be beneficial for adaptation.
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