Molecular Ecology最新文献

{"title":"Chromosome Evolution in Amniote Vertebrates: A Comprehensive Atlas of Karyotypic Diversity From Ancestral States to Rapid Turnover","authors":"Martin Knytl,&nbsp;Tiago Marafiga Degrandi,&nbsp;Dmitry Prokopov,&nbsp;Vladimir Trifonov,&nbsp;Lívia do Vale Martins,&nbsp;Francisco de Menezes Cavalcante Sassi,&nbsp;Marcelo Ricardo Vicari,&nbsp;Marcelo de Bello Cioffi,&nbsp;Marcello Mezzasalma","doi":"10.1111/mec.70608","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.70608","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The evolution of the amniote genome is characterized by a striking dichotomy between extreme karyotypic stasis and rapid structural innovation. To identify the mechanisms governing this variation, we provide a comprehensive synthesis of chromosome number and karyotype data across non-avian reptiles, birds and mammals, integrating a century of classical cytogenetics with modern chromosome-scale genomics. Amniote chromosome numbers span a range from 2<i>n</i> = 6 to 142 and have been shaped primarily by chromosomal fusions and fissions rather than by polyploidization common in non-amniotes. Recent ancestral state reconstructions suggest a highly fragmented ancestral amniote karyotype of 2<i>n</i> = 88 with a bipartite organization of macro- and microchromosomes. They also support environmental sex determination as the plesiomorphic state. We explore the evolutionary mechanisms facilitating chromosomal turnover, including lineage-specific transposable element activity, hybridization-driven genomic instability and genetic hitchhiking, alongside the canalization model and the position-effect hypothesis as primary responses to environmental transitions. Social structure, such as polygynous harem systems, can further contribute to rearrangement fixation via genetic drift in some, but not all, lineages. Chromosomal divergence across these lineages serves as a useful cytotaxonomic marker and, in some cases, a barrier to gene flow, as in the postzygotic incompatibility of equid and cervid hybrids. In contrast, introgression persists across karyotypically divergent rock-wallabies and crocodilians, indicating that the reproductive consequences of karyotypic divergence are lineage-specific rather than a fixed function of karyotypic distance. This synthesis presents an updated atlas of amniote chromosomal evolution and provides a conceptual framework for understanding how molecular mechanisms, ecological shifts and behavioural factors interact to shape genomic structure.</p>","PeriodicalId":210,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Ecology","volume":"35 21","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2026-11-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/mec.70608","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149356238","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Evidence for Local Adaptation Associated With Temperature Despite Weak Latitudinal Structure in a Temperate Seagrass","authors":"John W. Whale,&nbsp;Elizabeth A. Sinclair,&nbsp;Chanelle L. Webster,&nbsp;Nicole E. Said,&nbsp;Anna M. Frouws,&nbsp;David L. Field,&nbsp;Kathryn M. McMahon","doi":"10.1111/mec.70625","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.70625","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Understanding genetic diversity and structure in natural populations is important for conservation and developing resilience into restored populations for the future. Populations at the lower latitude (or northern) range edges tend to have lower levels of genetic diversity and are poorly connected, although they may be locally adapted to warmer environments. The temperate seagrass, <i>Posidonia sinuosa</i>, occurs across a latitudinal gradient along the Western Australian coastline. Some meadows have experienced significant decline due to industrialisation and urbanisation of coastal areas. We investigated spatial genetic diversity, structure, and local adaptation using single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). All meadows had similarly low levels of genetic diversity with high levels of inbreeding, despite high clonal diversity. Weak genetic structure was consistent with genetic connectivity, enabled by sea-surface seed dispersal. Approximately 6.1% of SNPs were identified as putatively adaptive and most were associated with temperature variables. Allelic turnover was associated with &lt; 1.4°C temperature change, suggesting plants may be sensitive to small temperature changes. Meadows are currently growing in temperatures below their thermal optima, so may tolerate future projected temperatures up to a point. Importantly, this temperature increase is below the 1.5°C–2.0°C goal of the Paris Agreement and plants are unlikely to tolerate current projections for 2100, which equate to +3.2°C, in addition to extreme heatwave events. Conservation of fragmented, northern, warmer-adapted meadows will be important to assist recovery and persistence of damaged meadows into the future, as translocation of putatively warmer-adapted genotypes that have exhibited historic connectivity may be a viable strategy for restoration of impacted higher latitude meadows.</p>","PeriodicalId":210,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Ecology","volume":"35 21","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2026-11-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/mec.70625","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149356239","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Symbiont-Derived Key Innovations Across the Diversity and Diets of Herbivorous Insects","authors":"Jacob A. Russell,&nbsp;Hannah M. Smith,&nbsp;Benoit Bechade,&nbsp;Christian Cabuslay,&nbsp;Melissa Carpenter,&nbsp;Daniel Freeman,&nbsp;Allison Hansen,&nbsp;Clesson Higashi,&nbsp;Yi Hu,&nbsp;Linyao Peng,&nbsp;Abigail Williams,&nbsp;Patrick Abbot","doi":"10.1111/mec.70615","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.70615","url":null,"abstract":"<p>With prodigious biomass and diversity, herbivorous insects are among the world's most successful animals. It is widely believed, however, that some plant-based diets do not meet the needs of insect metabolism. Microbial symbionts may balance such deficits through diverse biochemistry. Here, we consider whether obligate nutritional symbioses between insects and microbes support large portions of insect herbivore diversity. In doing so, we assess the evidence that these highly integrated relationships are key innovations, circumventing nutritive shortfalls within particular plant tissues. Toward these ends, we compile nutrient data for 20 plant- and non-plant foods, plus data on diet and symbiosis across 874 families of insects—both herbivorous and non-herbivorous. Our results reinforce widely believed, but often uncited evidence that several insect taxa have long-consumed plant tissues with low concentrations of B-vitamins, nitrogen, or accessible carbon. Emerging as symbiont-enriched are seed-feeders, which face insufficient quantities of several B-vitamins in their food. Experimental and genome assessments show how symbionts surmount these B-vitamin shortcomings, showing also where this same challenge, and those of high fibre or low amino acid content are surmounted through symbiosis on other diets. We thus show where symbiont services are key innovations. Over half of the world's insect herbivores persist without nutritive assistance from obligate symbionts. This is largely because many consume leaves, which are reasonably good sources of amino acids and B-vitamins. Lateral transfer of microbial genes encoding plant cell-wall degrading enzymes has helped to overcome high fibre content, defusing the most challenging nutritive aspect of leaf-chewing diets.</p>","PeriodicalId":210,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Ecology","volume":"35 21","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2026-11-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/mec.70615","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149356169","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Species Identification in Drosophilids; the Utility of k-mer Characters","authors":"Rob DeSalle","doi":"10.1111/mec.70624","DOIUrl":"10.1111/mec.70624","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Over 14,900 COI DNA sequences of drosophilids were used to build a character-based diagnostic system for the identification of genera and species in the group. This approach uses aligned COI sequence characters, k-mer characters and applies a hybrid approach that combines the two. To assess the efficacy of the diagnostics, accuracy versus coverage plots were used and resulted in the observation that practical rules (allowing 5% leakage [misidentified assignments]) perform much better than strict rules (no leakage). In addition, <i>k</i> = 10 was determined as the optimal <i>k</i> value for k-mer character analysis. Hybrid methods incorporating both k-mer characters and aligned DNA sequence characters outperform the individual approaches. Finally, unnamed drosophilid accessions were compiled and tentatively assigned taxonomy based on the diagnostic system developed here.</p>","PeriodicalId":210,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Ecology","volume":"35 21","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2026-11-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/mec.70624","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149340021","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"SNPs in Copy Number Variants Play a Key Role in Local Adaptation to Climate in Lotus (Nelumbo nucifera)","authors":"Tao Shi,&nbsp;Jinming Chen,&nbsp;Loren H. Rieseberg","doi":"10.1111/mec.70655","DOIUrl":"10.1111/mec.70655","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Copy number variation (CNV) constitutes a major source of adaptive genetic variation, yet its relative contribution to climate adaptation compared to non-CNV (single-copy) variants remains unresolved. Using whole-genome sequencing of 125 <i>Nelumbo nucifera</i> (sacred lotus, a common aquatic vegetable) wild accessions spanning tropical-temperate gradients, we distinguished 388,600 CNV-derived SNPs from 485,982 SNPs of single-copy regions. Latent factor mixed models (LFMM) revealed that CNV-SNPs appear to drive adaptation to temperature extremes and precipitation seasonality, whereas non-CNV SNPs dominate humid thermal adaptation. <i>NnPAL2</i>, a homologue of a drought-related gene in Arabidopsis, shows a recent selective sweep in temperate <i>N. nucifera</i>, with reduced copy number and expression associated with lower precipitation in the warmest quarter. Our results suggest that CNV SNPs and non-CNV SNPs contribute to distinct environmental axes, but the heterogeneous CNV effects across bioclimatic variables largely reflect ecotype-specific copy number backgrounds rather than intrinsic differences in selective pressures. CNV therefore plays a disproportionate role in coping with abiotic extremes. Discriminating CNV-derived SNPs from those derived from single-copy genomic regions is essential for accurately understanding the genetic basis of climate adaptation, with potential applications for crop improvement.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":210,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Ecology","volume":"35 21","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2026-11-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149340020","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Dietary Niches and Their Consequences for Five Insectivorous Passerines in a Seasonal Boreal Setting","authors":"Coen Westerduin,&nbsp;Emma Vatka,&nbsp;Léo Lou Mael Chapuis,&nbsp;Oona Herzog,&nbsp;Seppo Rytkönen,&nbsp;Marko Mutanen,&nbsp;Markku Orell","doi":"10.1111/mec.70620","DOIUrl":"10.1111/mec.70620","url":null,"abstract":"<p>To understand the effects of climate change and other disturbances on ecosystems, methodologies capable of unravelling the complexity of biotic interactions are vital. Here, we present a dietary study on five passerines nesting in boreal forests: the crested tit <i>Lophophanes cristatus</i>, willow tit <i>Poecile montanus</i>, blue tit <i>Cyanistes caeruleus</i>, great tit <i>Parus major</i>, and pied flycatcher <i>Ficedula hypoleuca</i>. We used metabarcoding to describe their arthropod prey during the breeding season, and linked diets' properties with breeding success to understand birds' dependence on particular prey. The birds' diets contained hundreds of arthropod taxa, showing considerable richness and interannual variation. Most prey identities were resolved to species level. The most common prey were Lepidoptera, followed by Diptera, Coleoptera and Araneae. Dietary overlap was low to middling, conformed to temporal overlap, and fluctuated across the three studied years. Higher consumption of lepidopterans and their larvae was strongly associated with higher breeding success in blue tits and, to a lesser extent, great tits. In contrast, crested tits, willow tits and pied flycatchers had a more constant breeding success without relying on specific prey. The results suggest that the more recently settled blue tits and great tits are less capable of optimally utilizing the comparatively resource-poor boreal environments. The apparent good adaptation to local foraging conditions contrasts to declining population trends in the Red-Listed crested tits and willow tits. Our study highlights the complexity of arthropod communities and insectivore food webs, and showcase how molecular methods can be used to study ecological interactions.</p>","PeriodicalId":210,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Ecology","volume":"35 21","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2026-11-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/mec.70620","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149331863","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Influence of the Antarctic Circumpolar Deep Water on Deep-Sea Eukaryotic Biodiversity and Distribution in the Western Pacific Ocean","authors":"Yuanyuan Wan,&nbsp;Feng Zhao,&nbsp;Kuidong Xu","doi":"10.1111/mec.70616","DOIUrl":"10.1111/mec.70616","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>The Antarctic region, a centre of biodiversity origin, influences deep-sea ecosystems by supplying species to distant regions. Understanding the influence of Antarctic Upper Circumpolar Deep Water (UCDW) on deep-sea eukaryotic diversity is therefore essential for outlining global biodiversity patterns. Our results showed the UCDW community exhibited ~1.5-fold higher taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity than the Caroline Basin control community and contained a substantial proportion of unique taxa across multiple eukaryotic lineages. Source tracking using the available Southern Ocean surface-water reference detected a 4.42% Antarctic-associated contribution to the UCDW community. Indicators and generalists of the UCDW community shared &gt; 97% sequence identity with Southern Ocean samples. The community analyses suggested that the Yap-Mariana Junction choke point did not constitute a strong barrier to connectivity between adjacent basins, consistent with UCDW-mediated dispersal into the Philippine Basin. The UCDW microbial dispersal into the Philippine Basin occurs through two potential routes: directly through the YMJ at 2000–3000 m and via upwelling across seamounts at 500–750 m. Governed mainly by neutral, dispersal-driven processes, the UCDW community showed strong genetic exchange and connectivity. These findings suggest a role for deep-water circulation in shaping the diversity and distribution of eukaryotes detected in western Pacific deep-water samples.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":210,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Ecology","volume":"35 21","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2026-11-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149331874","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Biogeographic Barriers and Gut Microbiome Turnover Across the Peromyscus maniculatus Species Complex","authors":"Danielle M. Blumstein,&nbsp;Aishwarya Patel,&nbsp;Gabriele Schiro,&nbsp;Taichi A. Suzuki","doi":"10.1111/mec.70617","DOIUrl":"10.1111/mec.70617","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Biogeographic barriers are fundamental in shaping the distribution of animals and plants, yet the role of discrete landscape features in constraining microbial dispersal remains poorly understood. Identifying the barriers that partition gut microbial communities is essential for modelling the distribution of hosts and their symbionts across physical space and evolutionary time. The deer mouse (<i>Peromyscus maniculatus</i> species complex), which inhabits nearly all terrestrial environments in North America, provides an ideal model for testing these biogeographic drivers of the mammalian gut microbiome. Using NSF NEON biorepository samples, we characterized the gut microbiomes of 13 populations across the contiguous United States using full-length 16S rRNA long-read sequencing. The presence or absence of microbial taxa was best explained by eastern versus western regions compared to habitat or climate, suggesting a role of large fluvial systems as discrete barriers to microbial transmission, likely due to restricted host dispersal. Although we observed a consistent distance-decay relationship across the continent, our results suggest that the Mississippi River is associated with increased microbial species turnover, with dissimilarity across the river exceeding levels predicted by geographic distance alone. Furthermore, we identified specific microbial lineages that exhibit varying patterns of isolation by distance across the continent, suggesting a gradient in microbial transmission patterns ranging from lineages that are freely shared across space to those that are dispersal limited. Together, these findings suggest that the gut microbiome may act as a bioindicator of landscape-level ecological connectivity, revealing discontinuities in microbial transmission associated with large-scale landscape barriers even among closely related host populations that lack reproductive barriers.</p>","PeriodicalId":210,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Ecology","volume":"35 21","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2026-11-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/mec.70617","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149331862","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Genomic Divergence and Variation in Developmental Plasticity Across Inselberg Populations of a Tropical Frog","authors":"Alexandra Delgadillo-Méndez,&nbsp;Gabriel Mochales-Riaño,&nbsp;Javier Méndez-Narváez,&nbsp;Catalina González-Arango,&nbsp;Joaquín Ortego,&nbsp;Ivan Gomez-Mestre","doi":"10.1111/mec.70621","DOIUrl":"10.1111/mec.70621","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Understanding how phenotypic plasticity and local specialization are shaped by gene flow and environmental heterogeneity requires natural systems that vary in both spatial isolation and environmental conditions across the landscape, yet such systems are uncommon. Naturally discontinuous inselbergs may provide this opportunity. Here, using populations of the inselberg-specialist frog <i>Leptodactylus lithonaetes</i>, we evaluated whether habitat discontinuity translates into restricted gene flow and genetic structure and then tested how variation in connectivity and environmental heterogeneity shapes the balance between phenotypic plasticity and local specialization. We predicted that populations with higher environmental heterogeneity and higher gene flow would evolve plasticity in growth and development, whereas populations in more homogeneous environments and more genetically isolated would exhibit reduced plasticity and increased specialization. Using &gt; 11,000 SNPs, we showed that the apparent habitat discontinuity among nine inselbergs spanning 300 km was reflected in a strong population structure and varying levels of gene flow among inselbergs, in an isolation-by-distance pattern. We then tested whether tadpoles alter their size or timing at metamorphosis to pond-drying risk, and whether these plastic responses vary among populations with environmental heterogeneity (seasonality). Although tadpoles did not plastically accelerate metamorphosis under pond-drying risk, the magnitude of body mass reduction under desiccation stress differed among populations, indicating developmental plasticity in body mass. Northern localities, exposed to greater environmental heterogeneity, showed greater survival and less body weight loss, resulting in higher tolerance to environmental stress than southern localities. Even in the absence of developmental acceleration, population-level variation in responses to environmental stress is congruent with reduced plasticity, or increased specialization, in isolated populations exposed to less heterogeneous environments.</p>","PeriodicalId":210,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Ecology","volume":"35 21","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2026-11-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/mec.70621","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149331865","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Early Metabolic Reprogramming in the Placenta Shapes Resilience to Gestational Hypoxia in High-Elevation Deer Mice","authors":"Megan J. Hemmerlein,&nbsp;Anna Isabel Bautista,&nbsp;Ellery L. Myers,&nbsp;Jeffrey M. Good,&nbsp;Zachary A. Cheviron,&nbsp;Kathryn Wilsterman","doi":"10.1111/mec.70612","DOIUrl":"10.1111/mec.70612","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Environmental hypoxia at high elevations is linked to increased rates of gestational complications. Evolutionary adaptation to high elevation environments mitigates these complications across mammals, in part through changes in placental function that shape foetal growth potential in late pregnancy. To investigate the developmental origins of placental adaptation to hypoxia, we acclimated pregnant deer mice (<i>Peromyscus maniculatus</i>) derived from low- and high-elevation populations to normoxia or hypoxia (equivalent to 4300 m) and characterized the structure and transcriptome of foetal placentas. We show that gestational hypoxia induced remodelling of the placental transcriptome in susceptible, lowland-derived mice, but not in highland-derived mice. A subset of this transcriptional plasticity displayed genetic assimilation, in which highland placentas expressed the induced value observed in lowlanders. However, we also found evidence that highland-derived mice reversed some of the ancestral lowland responses to hypoxia. Specifically, gestational hypoxia tended to suppress metabolic pathways in the placentas of lowland mice, whereas these responses were attenuated in highland mice. This divergence was centred on mitochondrial metabolic pathways. More broadly, we show that both constitutive population-level differences and remodelling of ancestral plasticity in the placenta tune expression within a stable transcriptional network architecture. Our results point to the developing placenta's metabolic responses to hypoxia as an early and developmentally specific functional target that likely contributes to pathologies associated with gestational hypoxia in humans and other mammals.</p>","PeriodicalId":210,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Ecology","volume":"35 21","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2026-11-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/mec.70612","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149331864","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}