Natural environments can change quickly and organisms living in these environments can either move, go extinct, or persist through rapid adaptation. Understanding the genetic and phenotypic changes that occur during rapid adaptation is crucial for predicting how populations will respond to sudden environmental changes. Since gene expression links genotype to phenotype, determining how rapid adaptation shapes the transcriptome will be useful for identifying both the traits and the genes important for adaptation, especially in cases where adaptation involves changes in quantitative traits. However, we lack a clear understanding of how rapid adaptation can cause and be caused by changes in gene expression. In this issue of Molecular Ecology, Hamann et al. (2020) investigate how gene expression has evolved during rapid adaptation to drought in two populations of the plant species Brassica rapa.

中文翻译：

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基因表达在快速适应过程中联系基因型和表型

自然环境可以快速变化，生活在这些环境中的生物可以移动，灭绝或通过快速适应而持久存在。了解快速适应过程中发生的遗传和表型变化，对于预测人群对突发环境变化的反应至关重要。由于基因表达将基因型与表型联系起来，因此确定转录组快速适应的方式将有助于鉴定性状和对适应性重要的基因，特别是在适应性涉及数量性状变化的情况下。但是，我们缺乏对基因表达变化如何引起快速适应的清晰认识。在本期《分子生态学》中，Hamann等。（2020）研究了在两个甘蓝型油菜种群中快速适应干旱的过程中基因表达的演变过程。