Adaptation to seasonal drought in Arabis alpina is linked to the demographic history and climatic changes since the last glacial maximum
Clicks: 18
ID: 326318
2026
Article Quality & Performance Metrics
Overall Quality
Not rated
Combines reader engagement with the AI quality analysis. This
article has not been analysed, so there is no overall score —
reader engagement is measured and shown alongside.
Reader Engagement
Emerging Content
5.1
/100
18 views
17 readers
AI Quality Assessment
Not analyzed
Readership in this journal
EmergingRanked #62 of 253 articles by views in molecular biology and evolution
Most read
Least read
Bar heights use a square-root scale. Only the 120 most-read articles are drawn; the journal has 253 in total.
Mint this article as an NFT
Not yet mintedCreate a permanent, verifiable on-chain record of this article on the Scimatic Network. The NFT is held in your Journament account, and you can withdraw it to your own wallet at any time.
5
SUSD
one-off · no wallet required
Abstract
Understanding how species adapt to new environments is a central goal in evolutionary biology, and a topical question in climate change research. Here, we sequenced the genomes of 426 individuals of the perennial, Arctic-alpine herb Arabis alpina to study demography and adaptation, with a focus on populations in Northern Spain, that experience warm and dry summers. Our inference supports a scenario in which A. alpina colonized Northern Spain in a range expansion event that started near the Alps around 216 thousand years ago (kya). During the last glacial episode (115 to 12 kya), this expansion proceeded westward, and effective population sizes were large across Europe, likely due to a larger suitable habitat for A. alpina. These ancient demographic events gave rise to a highly diverged genetic lineage in Northern Spain. In the present interglacial (between 12 kya and present), populations became increasingly fragmented, and lost genetic diversity across Europe. Furthermore, we detected signatures of selection at genes associated with responses to abiotic stress, including drought stress, and regulation of growth, for instance at SC5D and NAC055, which reflects the climatic changes since the last glacial period. Notably, an ancient polymorphism at the gene FRL1 emerged as a candidate for conferring variation in flowering behavior, and for contributing to adaptation to drought. Our study suggests that the combination of ancestral variation in flowering behavior, and positive selection on new mutations involved in drought responses, underlies the evolution of a new trait syndrome, and adaptation to climate change.
| Reference Key |
openalex_W4414258384
Use this key to autocite in the manuscript while using
SciMatic Manuscript Manager or Thesis Manager
|
|---|---|
| Authors | Bastiaan Tjeng, Mehak Mehak, Helene Bråten Grindeland, Jasmin Zohren, Andrea Dalla Libera, Jörg Wunder, Carlos Alonso‐Blanco, George Coupland, Andrea Fulgione |
| Journal | molecular biology and evolution |
| Year | 2026 |
| DOI |
10.1093/molbev/msag212
|
| URL | |
| Keywords | Keywords not found |
Citations
No citations found. To add a citation, contact the admin at info@scimatic.org
Comments
No comments yet. Be the first to comment on this article.