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Published on: August 12, 2019
Comparative population genetics of the immunity gene, Relish: is adaptive evolution idiosyncratic?
1Center for Population Biology, University of California at Davis, Davis, California, United States of America. mialevine@ucdavis.edu
Abstract:
The frequency of adaptive evolution acting on common loci in distant lineages remains an outstanding question in evolutionary biology. We asked whether the immunity factor, Relish, a gene with a history of directional selection in Drosophila simulans, shows evidence of a similar selective history in other Drosophila species. We found only weak evidence of recurrent adaptive protein evolution at the Relish locus in three sister species pairs, suggesting that this key component of the insect immune system has an idiosyncratic evolutionary history in Drosophila.
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