The phrase "a temperature cline" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used in scientific or environmental contexts to describe a gradual change in temperature over a certain distance or area.
Example: "The study focused on the effects of altitude on vegetation, highlighting a temperature cline that influenced plant distribution."
Alternatives: "a temperature gradient" or "a thermal gradient".
In terms of seeking out genes under selection over a latitudinal gradient where rainfall and temperature clines are steep, genes related to water balance and response to drought are obvious candidates.
However, several empirical studies have challenged the 'abundant center' view of species distribution [ 54], such as in the intertidal zone where localized variations in the thermal environment due to climatic and tidal interactions disrupt monotonic latitudinal temperature clines [ 54- 56].
This is probably not a temperature effect, however, as in the past 2L-2 has been irregularly distributed across the southern states, rarely rising above frequencies of 20percentt, without evidence of a latitudinal cline [ 20- 22].
We, therefore, hypothesised that the geographic differentiation also involves adaptation to the local climate, namely to a north south cline in temperature.
For example, an amino acid substitution between two alleles that vary along a cline in temperature affects thermostability [ 8], and experimental studies have shown that this variation is involved in the adaptation of killifish to hypoxia [ 9, 10].
Recently, Willett [ 32] and Kelly et al. [ 35] provided evidence that the intertidal copepod Tigriopus californicus exhibits variation in temperature tolerance along a latitudinal cline in California.
The pattern was clearly significant at low growing temperatures and a nearly significant cline was observed at high growing temperatures.
Polymorphisms in the MEP-2* gene are associated with temperature, growth, and age at maturation along a latitudinal cline and also with mitochondrial oxygen consumption [ 44– 44].
As predicted by the adaptive theory [ 19], A. thaliana accessions follow a latitudinal cline for total saturated FA composition in their TAGs independent of the growing temperature.
