Systematic Detection of Polygenic cis-Regulatory Evolution

Systematic Detection of Polygenic cis-Regulatory<br> Evolution: "Author Summary

Evolution can involve changes that are advantageous—known as
adaptations—as well as changes that are neutral or slightly deleterious,
which are established through a process of random drift. Discerning what
specific differences between any two lineages are adaptive is a major goal of
evolutionary biology. For gene expression differences, this has traditionally
proven to be a challenging question, and previous studies of gene expression
adaptation in metazoans have been restricted to the single-gene level. Here we
present a genome-wide analysis of gene expression evolution in two subspecies of
the mouse Mus musculus. We find several groups of genes that
have likely been subject to selection for up-regulation in a specific lineage.
These groups include genes related to mitochondria, growth, locomotion, and
memory. Analysis of the phenotypes of these mice indicates that these
adaptations may have had a significant impact on a wide range of phenotypes.

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