Molecular and developmental contributions to divergent pigment patterns in marine and freshwater sticklebacks.

ABSTRACT: Pigment pattern variation across species or populations offers a tractable framework in which to investigate the evolution of development. Juvenile threespine sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus) from marine and freshwater environments exhibit divergent pigment patterns that are associated with ecological differences. Juvenile marine sticklebacks have a silvery appearance, whereas sticklebacks from freshwater environments exhibit a pattern of vertical bars. We investigated both the developmental and molecular basis of this population-level variation in pigment pattern. Time course imaging during the transition from larval to juvenile stages revealed differences between marine and freshwater fish in spatial patterns of chromatophore differentiation as well as in pigment amount and dispersa

SUBMITTER: Greenwood AK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3394544 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature