Genetic and morphometric divergence in threespine stickleback in the Chignik catchment, Alaska.

ABSTRACT: Divergent selection pressures induced by different environmental conditions typically lead to variation in life history, behavior, and morphology. When populations are locally adapted to their current environment, selection may limit movement into novel sites, leading to neutral and adaptive genetic divergence in allopatric populations. Subsequently, divergence can be reinforced by development of pre-or postzygotic barriers to gene flow. The threespine stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus, is a primarily marine fish that has invaded freshwater repeatedly in postglacial times. After invasion, the established freshwater populations typically show rapid diversification of several traits as they become reproductively isolated from their ancestral marine population. In this study, we examine the

SUBMITTER: Taugbol A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3925378 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature