Signatures of selection in natural populations adapted to chronic pollution

Populations of the teleost fish Fundulus heteroclitus appear to flourish in heavily polluted and geographically separated Superfund sites. Populations from three Superfund sites (New Bedford Harbor, MA, Newark Bay, NJ, and Elizabeth River, VA) have independently evolved adaptive resistance to chemic...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:BMC evolutionary biology 2008-10, Vol.8 (1), p.282-282
Main Authors: Williams, Larissa M, Oleksiak, Marjorie F
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adaptation, Biological
Allelomorphism
Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism Analysis
Animal Population Groups - genetics
Animals
DNA
Evolution
Fundulidae - genetics
Fundulidae - physiology
Genomes
Massachusetts
New Jersey
Physiological aspects
Polymorphism, Genetic
Selection, Genetic
Virginia
Water Pollutants, Chemical
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Summary:Populations of the teleost fish Fundulus heteroclitus appear to flourish in heavily polluted and geographically separated Superfund sites. Populations from three Superfund sites (New Bedford Harbor, MA, Newark Bay, NJ, and Elizabeth River, VA) have independently evolved adaptive resistance to chemical pollutants. In these polluted populations, natural selection likely has altered allele frequencies of loci that affect fitness or that are linked to these loci. The aim of this study was to identify loci that exhibit non-neutral behavior in the F. heteroclitus genome in polluted populations versus clean reference populations. To detect signatures of natural selection and thus identify genetic bases for adaptation to anthropogenic stressors, we examined allele frequencies for many hundreds of amplified fragment length polymorphism markers among populations of F. heteroclitus. Specifically, we contrasted populations from three Superfund sites (New Bedford Harbor, MA, Newark Bay, NJ, and Elizabeth River, VA) to clean reference populations flanking the polluted sites. When empirical FST values were compared to a simulated distribution of FST values, 24 distinct outlier loci were identified among pairwise comparisons of pollutant impacted F. heteroclitus populations and both surrounding reference populations. Upon removal of all outlier loci, there was a strong correlation (R2=0.79, p
ISSN:1471-2148
1471-2148
DOI:10.1186/1471-2148-8-282