A Comparative Transcriptomic Analysis of Development in Two Astyanax Cavefish Populations.

ABSTRACT: Organisms that are isolated into extreme environments often evolve extreme phenotypes. However, global patterns of dynamic gene expression changes that accompany dramatic environmental changes remain largely unknown. The blind Mexican cavefish, Astyanax mexicanus, has evolved a number of severe cave-associated phenotypes including loss of vision and pigmentation, craniofacial bone fusions, increased fat storage, reduced sleep, and amplified nonvisual sensory systems. Interestingly, surface-dwelling forms have repeatedly entered different caves throughout Mexico, providing a natural set of "replicate" instances of cave isolation. These surrogate "ancestral" surface-dwelling forms persist in nearby rivers, enabling direct comparisons to the "derived" cave-dwelling form. We evaluated changes

SUBMITTER: Stahl BA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5561457 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature