Title
Global urban environmental change drives adaptation in white clover
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
3-18-2022
Abstract
Urbanization transforms environments in ways that alter biological evolution. We examined whether urban environmental change drives parallel evolution by sampling 110,019 white clover plants from 6169 populations in 160 cities globally. Plants were assayed for a Mendelian antiherbivore defense that also affects tolerance to abiotic stressors. Urban-rural gradients were associated with the evolution of clines in defense in 47% of cities throughout the world. Variation in the strength of clines was explained by environmental changes in drought stress and vegetation cover that varied among cities. Sequencing 2074 genomes from 26 cities revealed that the evolution of urban-rural clines was best explained by adaptive evolution, but the degree of parallel adaptation varied among cities. Our results demonstrate that urbanization leads to adaptation at a global scale.
Publication Source (Journal or Book title)
Science (New York, N.Y.)
First Page
1275
Last Page
1281
Recommended Citation
Santangelo, J. S., Ness, R. W., Cohan, B., Fitzpatrick, C. R., Innes, S. G., Koch, S., Miles, L. S., & Munim, S. (2022). Global urban environmental change drives adaptation in white clover. Science (New York, N.Y.), 375 (6586), 1275-1281. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abk0989