Department of Biological Sciences, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway; Institute of Marine Research, Bergen, Norway
Michele Casini
Department of Aquatic Resources, Institute of Marine Research, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Lysekil, Sweden; Department of Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
Geir Dahle
Institute of Marine Research, Bergen, Norway
Edward D Farrell
School of Biology and Environmental Science, Science Centre West, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
Department of Medical Biochemistry and Microbiology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden; Department of Veterinary Integrative Biosciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, United States; Department of Animal Breeding and Genetics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden
Atlantic herring is widespread in North Atlantic and adjacent waters and is one of the most abundant vertebrates on earth. This species is well suited to explore genetic adaptation due to minute genetic differentiation at selectively neutral loci. Here, we report hundreds of loci underlying ecological adaptation to different geographic areas and spawning conditions. Four of these represent megabase inversions confirmed by long read sequencing. The genetic architecture underlying ecological adaptation in herring deviates from expectation under a classical infinitesimal model for complex traits because of large shifts in allele frequencies at hundreds of loci under selection.
