Genomic and phenotypic signatures of climate adaptation in an Anolis lizard

• Published in: Ecology and evolution 2017-08, Vol.7 (16), p.6390-6403
• Main Authors: Rodríguez, Ariel, Rusciano, Tia, Hamilton, Rickeisha, Holmes, Leondra, Jordan, Deidra, Wollenberg Valero, Katharina C.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adaptation; Anolis; Anolis cybotes; Biological evolution; Brain; Climate; Climate adaptation; Climate change; Climate effects; Endocrine system; functional genomics; Homeostasis; Original Research; Phenotypes; population divergence; recurrence; thermal adaptation; Vertebrates
• ISSN: 2045-7758; 2045-7758
• DOI: 10.1002/ece3.2985

Integrated knowledge on phenotype, physiology, and genomic adaptations is required to understand the effects of climate on evolution. The functional genomic basis of organismal adaptation to changes in the abiotic environment, its phenotypic consequences, and its possible convergence across vertebrates are still understudied. In this study, we use a comparative approach to verify predicted gene functions for vertebrate thermal adaptation with observed functions underlying repeated genomic adaptations in response to elevation in the lizard Anolis cybotes. We establish a direct link between recurrently evolved phenotypes and functional genomics of altitude‐related climate adaptation in three highland and lowland populations in the Dominican Republic. We show that across vertebrates, genes contained in this interactome are expressed within the brain, the endocrine system, and during development. These results are relevant to elucidate the effect of global climate change across vertebrates and might aid in furthering insight into gene–environment relationships under disturbances to homeostasis. Despite the subject of organismal adaptation to environmental change being of high current relevance, only a few studies have proposed a genomic mechanism for such adaptation. We here verify previously published hypotheses on gene ontologies and evolutionary conserved vertebrate gene networks responsible for thermal adaptation with novel data on population genomic divergence across landscape climatic gradients in a Caribbean Anolis lizard.