Nucleotide variation at the CHALCONE ISOMERASE locus in Arabidopsis thaliana.

An approximately 1.9-kb region encompassing the CHI gene, which encodes chalcone isomerase, was sequenced in 24 worldwide ecotypes of Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh. and in 1 ecotype of A. lyrata ssp. petraea. There was no evidence for dimorphism at the CHI region. A minimum of three recombination events was inferred in the history of the sampled ecotypes of the highly selfing A. thaliana. The estimated nucleotide diversity theta(TOTAL) = 0.004, theta(SIL) = 0. 005 was on the lower part of the range of the corresponding estimates for other gene regions. The skewness of the frequency spectrum toward an excess of low-frequency polymorphisms, together with the bell-shaped distribution of pairwise nucleotide differences at CHI, suggests that A. thaliana has recently experienced a rapid population growth. Although this pattern could also be explained by a recent selective sweep at the studied region, results from the other studied loci and from an AFLP survey seem to support the expansion hypothesis. Comparison of silent polymorphism and divergence at the CHI region and at the Adh1 and ChiA revealed in some cases a significant deviation of the direct relationship predicted by the neutral theory, which would be compatible with balancing selection acting at the latter regions.

Genetic variation at marker loci and in quantitative traits in natural populations of Arabidopsis thaliana.

Genetic variation was studied in quantitative traits and molecular markers in six natural Scandinavian populations of Arabidopsis thaliana. Only two of the populations had several molecular marker haplotypes and significant between-family variance components in quantitative traits. There was no genetic variation in the other four populations. The differentiation between the populations was high in both molecular markers and quantitative traits, with FST estimates of above 0.60 in almost all traits. The patterns of variation of the neutral markers and morphological and phenological traits were consistent in all the analyses, as opposed to what has been found in predominantly outcrossing species. The general picture of the level and distribution of genetic variance agrees with the information from other predominantly inbreeding species.

Evolution of microsatellites in Arabis petraea and Arabis lyrata, outcrossing relatives of Arabidopsis thaliana.

We examined microsatellite variation in two diploid, outcrossing relatives of Arabidopsis thaliana, Arabis petraea and Arabis lyrata. The primer sequences were derived from A. thaliana. About 50% (14 loci) of the A. thaliana primers could successfully amplify microsatellites in the related species. Analysis of microsatellite structure in the related species showed that there had been large changes in the microsatellites: there were large differences in repeat numbers and many of the A. thaliana simple repeats were shorter in the related species. For the loci we compared, the related species had a much lower level of variability at the microsatellites than Japanese wild populations of A. thaliana. This is presumably related to the different microsatellite structures, because allozyme data showed that the outcrossing relatives were highly polymorphic compared to other outcrossing herbaceous species. Use of microsatellites in assessing variability or phylogenetic relationships between different species requires caution, because changes in microsatellite structure may alter evolutionary rates.