Bridging the gap between micro-evolution (what shapes genetic variation within populations and how this contributes to short-term adaptation) and macro-evolution (how species have diversified and adapted to various environments) is still one major challenge of evolutionary sciences. This is particularly apparent in current bioinformatic methods for characterizing genetic adaptation: some of these methods focus on the short time scale (using population genetics, e.g., human populations), other on the long time scale (using phylogenies, e.g., across mammals), yet there is still a complete disconnect between them and thus far, they have not agreed with each other. In our study, we detect genes and sites that show adaptive signatures at the mammalian scale. Then we show that these genes and sites are also under adaptation in different populations (cow, goat, horse, sheep, dog, green monkey and human). While providing a mutual confirmation of the two approaches, our work paves the way for further methodological integration between microevolutionary and macroevolutionary genomics.
Link to the article : https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2214977120
Thibault Latrille and Nicolas Lartillot