Biological Sciences Division
Published February 12, 2010 | Version v1
Journal article Open

The Scale of Population Structure in Arabidopsis thaliana

Creators

  • 1. University of Southern California
  • 2. University of Chicago
  • 3. Uppsala University
  • 4. University of Bern
  • 5. Illinois State University
  • 6. Duke University
  • 7. University of Warwick
  • 8. University of Edinburgh
  • 9. UMR Biologie et Gestion des Adventices
  • 10. Institut Jean-Pierre Bourgin
  • 11. Université de Lille
  • 12. Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology

Description

The population structure of an organism reflects its evolutionary history and influences its evolutionary trajectory. It constrains the combination of genetic diversity and reveals patterns of past gene flow. Understanding it is a prerequisite for detecting genomic regions under selection, predicting the effect of population disturbances, or modeling gene flow. This paper examines the detailed global population structure of Arabidopsis thaliana. Using a set of 5,707 plants collected from around the globe and genotyped at 149 SNPs, we show that while A. thaliana as a species self-fertilizes 97% of the time, there is considerable variation among local groups. This level of outcrossing greatly limits observed heterozygosity but is sufficient to generate considerable local haplotypic diversity. We also find that in its native Eurasian range A. thaliana exhibits continuous isolation by distance at every geographic scale without natural breaks corresponding to classical notions of populations. By contrast, in North America, where it exists as an exotic species, A. thaliana exhibits little or no population structure at a continental scale but local isolation by distance that extends hundreds of km. This suggests a pattern for the development of isolation by distance that can establish itself shortly after an organism fills a new habitat range. It also raises questions about the general applicability of many standard population genetics models. Any model based on discrete clusters of interchangeable individuals will be an uneasy fit to organisms like A. thaliana which exhibit continuous isolation by distance on many scales.

Notes

Due to the large number of authors, only the first 20 and the University of Chicago authors are included on the above author list. Please download the article for the complete list of authors.

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Additional details

Identifiers

DOI
10.1371/journal.pgen.1000843
Other
oai:uchicago.tind.io:10442

Funding

National Science Foundation
DEB-0519961
National Institutes of Health
GM073822
National Institutes of Health
GM07994
National Institutes of Health
DEB - 0723935

UChicago Information

Division(s)
Biological Sciences Division
Department(s)
Ecology and Evolution