Special Issue: Beyond transcription: The role of post-transcriptional gene regulation in adaptation and evolution

Gene expression regulation plays a central role in adaptive divergence and evolution, yet our understanding of adaptive post-transcriptional divergence is still limited. Recent studies have demonstrated the potentially important role of variation in alternative transcript splicing and other post-transcriptional processes in adaptation and evolution. Compared to transcription levels, many open questions remain regarding the role of variation in transcript splicing under different eco-evolutionary contexts, the rate of splicing versus expression evolution, or the mechanisms through which splicing alters phenotypes. Furthermore, a multitude of other post-transcriptional processes, such as non-coding RNAs or epigenetic transcript modifications, play important roles in gene regulation, and its evolution.
 

Stemming from the symposium “Beyond transcription: the role of post-transcriptional regulation in adaptation and evolution” organised as part of the Congress of the European Society for Evolutionary Biology in Prague August 2022, this special issue focuses on the role of post-transcriptional variation in adaptation. In particular, articles in this special issue highlight the importance of alternative splicing in adaptation across diverse taxa, but also bring forth novel ideas about the importance of short non-coding RNAs for post-transcriptional regulation and their potential role in speciation.