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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Oct 7, 2025

Microinjection for Transgenesis and Genome Editing in Threespine Sticklebacks
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Pleiotropy facilitates parallel adaptation in sticklebacks.

Diana J Rennison1, Catherine L Peichel1

  • 1Division of Evolutionary Ecology, Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.

Molecular Ecology
|January 8, 2022
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Highly pleiotropic genes, which affect many traits, were surprisingly found more often in parallel genomic adaptation in threespine stickleback. This suggests intermediate pleiotropy may aid adaptation, contrary to predictions.

Keywords:
adaptationparallel evolutionpleiotropypopulation genomicsquantitative trait lociweighted correlation network analysis

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Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary biology
  • Genomics
  • Ecology

Background:

  • Highly pleiotropic genes are hypothesized to be less utilized in adaptation due to potential negative fitness effects.
  • Understanding the role of pleiotropy in parallel evolution is crucial for evolutionary theory.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate if pleiotropy influences the likelihood of a genomic region being repeatedly used during adaptation.
  • To test the prediction that less pleiotropic genes are favored for parallel adaptation.

Main Methods:

  • Surveyed 16 stream-lake and 3 benthic-limnetic ecotype pairs of threespine stickleback for parallel genomic differentiation.
  • Estimated gene pleiotropy using proxies: number of affected phenotypic traits and gene connectivity.
  • Compared pleiotropy levels between parallel and nonparallel genomic regions.

Main Results:

  • Found significant parallel genomic divergence across multiple independent stickleback ecotype pairs.
  • Contrary to predictions, parallel genomic regions were associated with genes exhibiting higher pleiotropy (more traits affected, higher connectivity).
  • No significant differences in gene count, mutation, or recombination rates were observed between parallel and nonparallel regions.

Conclusions:

  • Pleiotropy's constraint on adaptation may only manifest at very high levels.
  • Low to intermediate levels of pleiotropy might be advantageous for adaptive evolution.
  • Findings challenge the simple prediction that pleiotropy hinders repeated adaptation.