Same trait, different genes: pelvic spine loss in three brook stickleback populations in Alberta, Canada.

ABSTRACT: The genetic basis of phenotypic or adaptive parallelism can reveal much about constraints on evolution. This study investigated the genetic basis of a canonically parallel trait: pelvic spine reduction in sticklebacks. Pelvic reduction has a highly parallel genetic basis in threespine stickleback in populations around the world, always involving a deletion of the pel1 enhancer of Pitx1. We conducted a genome-wide association study to investigate the genetic basis of pelvic spine reduction in 3 populations of brook stickleback in Alberta, Canada. Pelvic reduction did not involve Pitx1 in any of the 3 populations. Instead, pelvic reduction in 1 population involved a mutation in an exon of Tbx4, and it involved a mutation in an intron of Lmbr1 in the other two popu

SUBMITTER: Mee JA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11790222 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature