Convergent evolution of SWS2 opsin facilitates adaptive radiation of threespine stickleback into different light environments.

ABSTRACT: Repeated adaptation to a new environment often leads to convergent phenotypic changes whose underlying genetic mechanisms are rarely known. Here, we study adaptation of color vision in threespine stickleback during the repeated postglacial colonization of clearwater and blackwater lakes in the Haida Gwaii archipelago. We use whole genomes from 16 clearwater and 12 blackwater populations, and a selection experiment, in which stickleback were transplanted from a blackwater lake into an uninhabited clearwater pond and resampled after 19 y to test for selection on cone opsin genes. Patterns of haplotype homozygosity, genetic diversity, site frequency spectra, and allele-frequency change support a selective sweep centered on the adjacent blue- and red-light sensitive opsins SWS2 and LWS. The ha

SUBMITTER: Marques DA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5388470 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature