article published yes Anja M Westram author 3C147470-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A870000-0003-1050-4969 Rui Faria author Kerstin Johannesson author Roger Butlin author Nicholas H Barton author 4880FE40-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A870000-0002-8548-5240 BeVi department NiBa department Snapdragon Speciation project Local adaptation leads to differences between populations within a species. In many systems, similar environmental contrasts occur repeatedly, sometimes driving parallel phenotypic evolution. Understanding the genomic basis of local adaptation and parallel evolution is a major goal of evolutionary genomics. It is now known that by preventing the break-up of favourable combinations of alleles across multiple loci, genetic architectures that reduce recombination, like chromosomal inversions, can make an important contribution to local adaptation. However, little is known about whether inversions also contribute disproportionately to parallel evolution. Our aim here is to highlight this knowledge gap, to showcase existing studies, and to illustrate the differences between genomic architectures with and without inversions using simple models. We predict that by generating stronger effective selection, inversions can sometimes speed up the parallel adaptive process or enable parallel adaptation where it would be impossible otherwise, but this is highly dependent on the spatial setting. We highlight that further empirical work is needed, in particular to cover a broader taxonomic range and to understand the relative importance of inversions compared to genomic regions without inversions. https://research-explorer.ista.ac.at/download/11546/12479/2022_PhilosophicalTransactionsB_Westram.pdf application/pdfno Royal Society of London2022 eng General Agricultural and Biological SciencesGeneral BiochemistryGenetics and Molecular Biology 0962-8436 1471-2970 35694747 00081231730000510.1098/rstb.2021.0203 3771856 Westram, Anja M., et al. “Inversions and Parallel Evolution.” <i>Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences</i>, vol. 377, no. 1856, 20210203, Royal Society of London, 2022, doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2021.0203">10.1098/rstb.2021.0203</a>. Westram, Anja M, Rui Faria, Kerstin Johannesson, Roger Butlin, and Nicholas H Barton. “Inversions and Parallel Evolution.” <i>Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences</i>. Royal Society of London, 2022. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2021.0203">https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2021.0203</a>. Westram AM, Faria R, Johannesson K, Butlin R, Barton NH. 2022. Inversions and parallel evolution. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 377(1856), 20210203. Westram AM, Faria R, Johannesson K, Butlin R, Barton NH. Inversions and parallel evolution. <i>Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences</i>. 2022;377(1856). doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2021.0203">10.1098/rstb.2021.0203</a> A. M. Westram, R. Faria, K. Johannesson, R. Butlin, and N. H. Barton, “Inversions and parallel evolution,” <i>Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences</i>, vol. 377, no. 1856. Royal Society of London, 2022. Westram, A. M., Faria, R., Johannesson, K., Butlin, R., &#38; Barton, N. H. (2022). Inversions and parallel evolution. <i>Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences</i>. Royal Society of London. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2021.0203">https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2021.0203</a> A.M. Westram, R. Faria, K. Johannesson, R. Butlin, N.H. Barton, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 377 (2022). 115462022-07-08T11:41:56Z2025-06-12T06:10:18Z