What is it about?

Biological invasions rank among the main global threats for biodiversity. The eastern mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki) is considered one of the 100 world worst invasive species due to its high adaptation capability to new environments. Genetic analyses showed that invasive populations show high reductions in diversity, showing that during the invasion process genetic drift was the main evolutionary force affecting patterns of diversity and population structure. However, selection signals were detected preserving polymorphism in specific genes (i.e. balancing selection). Thus, this maintenance could be more important than the average population diversity for the survival of introduced populations.

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Why is it important?

The role of balancing selection in invasive processes

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This page is a summary of: Genomic survey provides insights into the evolutionary changes that occurred during European expansion of the invasive mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki), Molecular Ecology, February 2016, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1111/mec.13545.
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