The molecular population genetics of regulatory genes

Regulatory loci, which may encode both trans acting proteins as well as cis acting promoter regions, are crucial components of an organism's genetic a rchitecture. Although evolution of these regulatory loci is believed to und erlie the evolution of numerous adaptive traits, there is little informatio n on natural variation of these genes. Recent molecular population genetic studies, however, have provided insights into the extent of natural variati on at regulatory genes, the evolutionary forces that shape them and the phe notypic effects of molecular regulatory variants. These recent analyses sug gest that it may be possible to study the molecular evolutionary ecology of regulatory diversification by examining both the extent and patterning of regulatory gene diversity, the phenotypic effects of molecular variation at these loci and their ecological consequences.