This phenomenon is known as colour polymorphism when the main phenotypic difference is the colour of the plumage, pelage or skin, and has traditionally been defined as the existence of distinct, genetically determined colour morphs within a single interbreeding population, in such a proportion that the rarest form cannot be solely maintained by recurrent mutation [1].
However, it has recently been shown that there can be multiple plasmid transfers among the B. cereus group strains [ 44], thereby compromising the main genetic and phenotypic differences within the cereus- thuringiensis- anthracis group.
It has long been hypothesized that gene expression changes are one of the main underlying causes of phenotypic differences between species [ 1, 2].
Transcription comparison using RNA-Seq identified which of the differentially expressed genes were the main contributors to the phenotypic differences between YJS329 and BYZ1.
Even though the main sources of adaptive characters causing phenotypic differences between organisms remain under debate (Hughes 2012), it is generally accepted that positive selection (PS) (selection in favor of advantageous mutations) plays an important role in the origin of new phenotypes (Anisimova and Liberles 2012).
One of the main results was the realization that large phenotypic differences could be the result of much simpler genetic differences than previously thought.
The two main genetic types in Iberian pig production show important phenotypic differences in growth, fattening and tissue composition since early developmental stages.
Under both well-watering and dry land (rainfed upland) environments, the upland accessions consistently showed significantly taller plant architecture, fewer tillers, longer main roots and heavier root weights, which supports the previously reported phenotypic differences (Table 1, see Additional file 5 for the phenotypic difference).
Although the main cellular proteins could be matched easily among the cell lines, the 2-DE protein maps differed considerably, pointing to the already known phenotypic differences among the lines.
The main property of GSEA is that it finds significant pathways related to the analyzed phenotypic differences by integrating weak association signals that would be lost due to the huge amount of assayed genes.
