Convergent evolution of alternative developmental trajectories associated with diapause in African and South American killifish.

ABSTRACT: Annual killifish adapted to life in seasonally ephemeral water-bodies exhibit desiccation resistant eggs that can undergo diapause, a period of developmental arrest, enabling them to traverse the otherwise inhospitable dry season. Environmental cues that potentially indicate the season can govern whether eggs enter a stage of diapause mid-way through development or skip this diapause and instead undergo direct development. We report, based on construction of a supermatrix phylogenetic tree of the order Cyprinodontiformes and a battery of comparative analyses, that the ability to produce diapause eggs evolved independently at least six times within African and South American killifish. We then show in species representative of these lineages that embryos entering diapause display significan

SUBMITTER: Furness AI 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4344141 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature