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Phenotypic plasticity and local adaptation via genetic change are two major mechanisms of response to dynamic environmental conditions. These mechanisms are not mutually exclusive, since genetic change can establish similar phenotypes to plasticity. This connection between both mechanisms raises the question of how much of the variation observed between species or populations is plastic and how much of it is genetic. In this study, we used a structured population of fire salamanders (Salamandra salamandra), in which two subpopulations differ in terms of physiology, genetics, mate-, and habitat preferences. Our goal was to identify candidate genes for differential habitat adaptation in this system, and to explore the degree of plasticity compared to local adaptation. We therefore performed a reciprocal transfer experiment of stream- and pond-originated salamander larvae and analyzed changes in morphology and transcriptomic profile (using species-specific microarrays). We observed that stream- and pond-originated individuals diverge in morphology and gene expression. For instance, pond-originated larvae have larger gills, likely to cope with oxygen-poor ponds. When transferred to streams, pond-originated larvae showed a high degree of plasticity, resembling the morphology and gene expression of stream-originated larvae (reversion); however the same was not found for stream-originated larvae when transferred to ponds, where the expression of genes related to reduction-oxidation processes was increased, possibly to cope with environmental stress. The lack of symmetrical responses between transplanted animals highlights the fact that the adaptations are not fully plastic and that some level of local adaptation has already occurred in this population. This study illuminates the process by which phenotypic plasticity allows local adaptation to new environments and its potential role in the pathway of incipient speciation.
Pubmed ID: 31683677
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A web-based browser for Gene Ontology terms and annotations, which is provided by the UniProtKB-GOA group at the EBI. It is able to offer a range of facilities including bulk downloads of GO annotation data which can be extensively filtered by a range of different parameters and GO slim set generation. The software for QuickGO is freely available under the Apache 2 license. QuickGO can supply GO term information and GO annotation data via REST web services.
View all literature mentionsOpen, web-based platform providing bioinformatics tools and services for data intensive genomic research. Platform may be used as a service or installed locally to perform, reproduce, and share complete analyses. Galaxy automatically tracks and manages data provenance and provides support for capturing the context and intent of computational methods. Galaxy Community has created Galaxy instances in many different forms and for many different applications including Galaxy servers, cloud services that support Galaxy instances, and virtual machines and containers that can be easily deployed for your own server.The Galaxy team is a part of BX at Penn State, and the Biology and Mathematics and Computer Science departments at Emory University.Training Infrastructure as a Service (TIaaS) is a service offered by some UseGalaxy servers to specifically support training use cases.
View all literature mentionsSoftware R package for multivariate analysis which takes into account different types of data structure. Data can be organized in groups of variable, groups of individuals, or into hierarchy of variables.
View all literature mentionsTHIS RESOURCE IS NO LONGER IN SERVICE. Documented on February 28,2023. Algorithm for high-dimensional biomarker discovery and explanation that identifies genes, pathways, or taxa characterizing the differences between two or more biological conditions. The algorithm identifies features that are statistically different among biological classes, then performs additional tests to assess whether these differences are consistent with respect to expected biological behavior. Statistical significance and biological relevance are emphasized.
View all literature mentionsSoftware package which provides tools for testing GO terms while accounting for the topology of the GO graph. Different test statistics and different methods for eliminating local similarities and dependencies between GO terms can be implemented and applied.
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