Alternative splicing in seasonal plasticity and the potential for adaptation to environmental change

• Seasonal plasticity is accomplished via tightly regulated developmental cascades that translate environmental cues into trait changes. Little is known about how alternative splicing and other posttranscriptional molecular mechanisms contribute to plasticity or how these mechanisms impact how plasti find strong support for the novel hypothesis that spliced genes are more susceptible than differentially expressed genes to erosion of genetic variation due to selection on seasonal plasticity. Our results suggest that splicing plasticity is especially likely to experience geneticcity evolves. Here, we use transcriptomic and genomic data from the butterfly Bicyclus anynana, a model system for seasonal plasticity, to compare the extent of differential expression and splicing and test how these axes of transcriptional plasticity differ in their potential for evolutionary change. Between seasonal morphs, we find that differential splicing affects a smaller but functionally unique set of genes compared to differential expression. Further, we constraints that could affect the potential of wild populations to respond to rapidly changing environments. Little is known about how alternative splicing and other post-transcriptional molecular mechanisms impact plasticity. Steward et al. use transcriptomic and genomic data from the butterfly Bicyclus anynana, finding that splicing plasticity is likely to experience genetic constraints.

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NATURVETENSKAP  -- Biologi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Biological Sciences (hsv//eng)

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