PRJNA494419
Peromyscus maniculatus (North American deer mouse) and Peromyscus leucopus (white-footed mouse). Raw sequence reads
Raw sequences reads from the paper entitled "Maladaptive phenotypic plasticity in cardiac muscle growth is suppressed in high-altitude deer mice." Jonathan P. Velotta et al. Journal Evolution. In this study we examined the role of phenotypic plasticity in evolutionary divergence between two species of Peromyscus mice that differ in native elevations. We used cardiac mass as a model phenotype, since ancestral hypoxia-induced responses of the heart may be both adaptive and maladaptive at high-altitude. While left ventricle growth should enhance oxygen delivery to tissues, hypertrophy of the right ventricle can lead to heart failure and death. We compared left- and right-ventricle plasticity in response to hypoxia between captive-bred P. leucopus (representing the ancestral lowland condition) and P. maniculatus from high-altitude. We found that maladaptive ancestral plasticity in right ventricle hypertrophy is reduced in high-altitude deer mice. Analysis of the left and right ventricle transcriptomes suggests that changes in expression of inflammatory signaling genes, particularly interferon regulatory factors, contribute to the suppression of right ventricle hypertrophy. We found weak evidence that adaptive plasticity of left ventricle mass contributes to evolution. Our results suggest that selection to suppress ancestral maladaptive plasticity plays a role in adaptation.