Publication Date:
2005-04-30
Description:
Geographical clines in genetic polymorphisms are widely used as evidence of climatic selection and are expected to shift with climate change. We show that the classic latitudinal cline in the alcohol dehydrogenase polymorphism of Drosophila melanogaster has shifted over 20 years in eastern coastal Australia. Southern high-latitude populations now have the genetic constitution of more northerly populations, equivalent to a shift of 4 degrees in latitude. A similar shift was detected for a genetically independent inversion polymorphism, whereas two other linked polymorphisms exhibiting weaker clinal patterns have remained relatively stable. These genetic changes are likely to reflect increasingly warmer and drier conditions and may serve as sensitive biomarkers for climate change.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Umina, P A -- Weeks, A R -- Kearney, M R -- McKechnie, S W -- Hoffmann, A A -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2005 Apr 29;308(5722):691-3.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Centre for Environmental Stress and Adaptation Research, School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria 3800, Australia.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15860627" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Adaptation, Physiological
;
Alcohol Dehydrogenase/*genetics
;
Animals
;
Australia
;
Chromosome Inversion
;
*Climate
;
Drosophila melanogaster/enzymology/*genetics
;
Gene Frequency
;
Genes, Insect
;
Geography
;
Glycerolphosphate Dehydrogenase/genetics
;
*Polymorphism, Genetic
;
Temperature
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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