Variation in Neural Crest Development and Functional Divergence of sox10 Paralogs Contribute to Morphological Diversification in Cichlid Fishes.

ABSTRACT: Neural crest (NC) is a vertebrate-specific embryonic progenitor cell population at the basis of important vertebrate features such as the craniofacial skeleton and pigmentation patterns. Despite the wide-ranging variation of NC-derived traits across vertebrates, the contribution of NC to species diversification remains largely unexplored. Here, by leveraging the adaptive diversity of African Great Lakes' cichlid species, we combined comparative transcriptomics and population genomics to investigate the role of NC development in morphological diversification. Our analysis revealed substantial differences in transcriptional landscapes across somitogenesis, an embryonic period coinciding with NC development and migration. Notably, several NC-related gene expression clusters showed both specie

SUBMITTER: Marconi A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10862805 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature