Evaluating the Roles of Drift and Selection in Trait Loss along an Elevational Gradient

Traits that have lost function sometimes persist through evolutionary time. These traits may persist if there is not enough standing genetic variation for the trait to allow a response to selection, if selection against the trait is weak relative to drift, or if the trait has a residual function. To determine the evolutionary processes shaping whether nonfunctional traits are retained or lost, we investigated short stamens in 16 populations of Arabidopsis thaliana along an elevational cline in northeast Spain. We found a cline in short stamen number from retention of short stamens in high elevation populations to incomplete loss in low elevation populations. We did not find evidence that limited genetic variation constrains the loss of short stamens at high elevations, nor evidence for divergent selection on short stamens between high and low elevations. Finally, we identified loci associated with short stamens in northeast Spain that are different from loci associated with variation in short stamen number across latitudes from a previous study. Overall, we did not identify the evolutionary mechanisms contributing to an elevational cline in short stamen number but did identify different genetic loci underlying variation in short stamen along similar phenotypic clines.