Few Fixed Variants between Trophic Specialist Pupfish Species Reveal Candidate Cis-Regulatory Alleles Underlying Rapid Craniofacial Divergence.

ABSTRACT: Investigating closely related species that rapidly evolved divergent feeding morphology is a powerful approach to identify genetic variation underlying variation in complex traits. This can also lead to the discovery of novel candidate genes influencing natural and clinical variation in human craniofacial phenotypes. We combined whole-genome resequencing of 258 individuals with 50 transcriptomes to identify candidate cis-acting genetic variation underlying rapidly evolving craniofacial phenotypes within an adaptive radiation of Cyprinodon pupfishes. This radiation consists of a dietary generalist species and two derived trophic niche specialists-a molluscivore and a scale-eating species. Despite extensive morphological divergence, these species only diverged 10 kya and produce fertile hybr

SUBMITTER: McGirr JA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7826174 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature