Such ecotype differentiation may be due to the long-term selection pressure that caused these populations to adapt to local environmental and edaphic conditions (Kawecki & Ebert 2004; Savolainen et al. 2007).
Therefore, since kinases and phosphatases are involved in biochemical and cell-cycle pathways essential for proliferation and cell survival, the long-term selection method could have eliminated the less viable clones from the final output.
P.S. designed and, with C.H., conducted the long-term selection experiment.
The sludge community was dominated by a single clonal type and this may be due to the long-term selection implemented by enrichment culturing.
To evaluate the specialization process in response to the long-term selection design, on the criterion of reproduction only, both generations 16 and 36 of line V were used (hereafter referred to as V16 and V36).
The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of choices that can be made, in terms of evaluation methods and between reference population structures, on the long-term selection response.
Studies on model systems suggest that new mutations could make substantial contributions to the long-term selection response of quantitative traits (López and López-Fanjul 1993; Mackay et al. 1994; Keightley 1998; Azevedo et al. 2002).
High level of nucleotide diversity in synonymous sites as well as in non-synonymous sites of TvQR1 may suggest that the long-term selection has been acting on this gene, as it is expected to elevate nucleotide diversity of closely linked sites while non-synonymous sites are more likely to be the direct target of selection.
The results suggest that the release of genetic variance due to epistatic interaction [ 4] is a more likely explanation for the long-term selection response in these lines rather than the occurrence of new mutations during the course of selection [ 23].
Our explanation is in accordance with the observation that the IIlinois long term selection experiment for grain protein (high vs. low protein) and oil concentration (high vs. low oil) in maize had lead to phenotypically but also genotypically divergent populations [ 38].
This last assumption is easily traced back to Williams' and Dawkins' views that alleles are the ultimate beneficiaries of any long term selection process; thus, the genic pluralist argument rests substantially on a view regarding the superior importance of the beneficiary question, which has been clearly delineated from the interactor question, above.
