Divergence in larval jaw gene expression reflects differential trophic adaptation in haplochromine cichlids prior to foraging.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Understanding how variation in gene expression contributes to morphological diversity is a major goal in evolutionary biology. Cichlid fishes from the East African Great lakes exhibit striking diversity in trophic adaptations predicated on the functional modularity of their two sets of jaws (oral and pharyngeal). However, the transcriptional basis of this modularity is not so well understood, as no studies thus far have directly compared the expression of genes in the oral and pharyngeal jaws. Nor is it well understood how gene expression may have contributed to the parallel evolution of trophic morphologies across the replicate cichlid adaptive radiations in Lake Tanganyika, Malawi and Victoria.

Results

We set out to investigate the role of gene expression diverg

SUBMITTER: Ahi EP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6657104 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature