Skip to main content
SLU publication database (SLUpub)

Research article2022Peer reviewedOpen access

Global urban environmental change drives adaptation in white clover

Santangelo, James S.; Ness, Rob W.; Cohan, Beata; Fitzpatrick, Connor R.; Innes, Simon G.; Koch, Sophie; Miles, Lindsay S.; Munim, Samreen; Peres-Neto, Pedro R.; Prashad, Cindy; Tong, Alex T.; Aguirre, Windsor E.; Akinwole, Philips O.; Alberti, Marina; Alvarez, Jackie; Anderson, Jill T.; Anderson, Joseph J.; Ando, Yoshino; Andrew, Nigel R.; Angeoletto, Fabio;
Show more authors

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 dines 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.

Published in

Science
2022, Volume: 375, number: 6586, pages: 1275-1281

        SLU Authors

        • Scholier, Tiffany

        • Associated SLU-program

          SLU Plant Protection Network

          UKÄ Subject classification

          Evolutionary Biology
          Ecology

          Publication identifier

          DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abk0989

          Permanent link to this page (URI)

          https://res.slu.se/id/publ/116411