Seminar series on The Evolution of Genomic Architecture - John Parsch: Gene expression variation in natural populations of Drosophila melanogaster
- Date: Jun 4, 2019
- Time: 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM (Local Time Germany)
- Speaker: John Parsch from LMU in Munich, Germany
- Here you find more information on the speaker: http://evol.bio.lmu.de/research/john_parsch/index.html
- Location: MPI Plön
- Room: Lecture hall
- Host: Jenna Gallie & Julien Dutheil
Abstract:
Although gene expression can vary extensively within and between
populations, the genetic basis of this variation and the evolutionary
forces that maintain it are largely unknown. We used high-throughput RNA
sequencing (RNA-seq) to identify genes differing in expression between
Drosophila melanogaster populations from the ancestral (African) and
derived (European) ranges of the species. By combining the
transcriptomic results with population genetic analyses and transgenic
reporter gene experiments, we were able to determine the specific
regulatory regions responsible for the observed expression variation of
multiple genes, including genes involved in stress tolerance, growth
regulation, and several cytochrome P450 genes. Many of the regulatory
variants had tissue-specific effects on expression and displayed
elevated sequence divergence between populations relative to the rest of
the genome. This suggests that local adaptation plays an important role
in maintaining regulatory variation in natural populations.