Imagine that you are studying a species of invasive insect that has spread from Brazil to the Eastern coast of the U.S. You hypothesize that this species spread has been aided by strong selection for cold tolerance in the U.S. populations. To test your hypothesis, you compare Fst of a US population with a Brazilian population in the region containing a gene coding for a cold-shock protein, which is known to help cells acclimate to cold.
If your hypothesis is correct, how would you expect Fst in the genomic region surrounding the cold-shock gene to compare to Fst in the rest of the genome?
(a) Fst should be higher in the region surrounding the cold-shock protein.
(b) Fst should be lower in the region surrounding the cold-shock gene.
(c) Fst in the region surrounding the cold-shock gene should be no different from Fst in the rest of the genome.