Multi-trait evolution in a cave fish, Astyanax mexicanus

doi:10.1111/j.1525-142X.2008.00227.x

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Wiley InterScience

Evolution & Development

Volume 10 Issue 2, Pages 196 - 209

Published Online: 3 Mar 2008

Sponsored by the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology

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Multi-trait evolution in a cave fish, Astyanax mexicanus

Meredith Protas ^a ¹ , Inna Tabansky ^b ² , Melissa Conrad ^b , Joshua B. Gross ^a ³ , Oriol Vidal ^b,c ⁴ , Clifford J. Tabin ^a ³ , and Richard Borowsky ^b ^*

^a Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
^b Department of Biology, New York University, New York, NY, USA
^c Departament de Biologia, Universitat de Girona, Girona, Spain

^*Author for correspondence (email: rb4@nyu.edu)

¹Present address: Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA.

²Present address: Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.

³Present address: Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.

⁴Present address: Laboratori d'Ictiologia Genetica, Departament de Biologia, Universitat de Girona, Girona, Catalunya (Spain).

ABSTRACT

SUMMARY When surface species colonize caves, a characteristic suite of traits eventually evolves over time, regardless of species. The genetic basis of the inevitable appearance of these very similar phenotypes was investigated through quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping of 12 traits that differ significantly between the recently evolved (<1 Myr). Mexican cave tetra and its surface conspecific. The traits were a representative set, including eye size, pigment cell numbers, chemical sensitivity, body and skull morphology, standard length, and metabolism. We used both single- and multi-trait models for QTL mapping. QTL effects of these traits were significantly clustered in the genome. We mapped 13 regions in the genome with QTL effects on from three to nine traits. These clusters could be multigenic or could represent single locus with pleiotropic alleles. Given the relatively short time available to construct clusters from unlinked genes through genomic rearrangement, and the counterintuitive polarities of some of the substitution effects, we argue that at least some of the clusters must have a pleiotropic basis.

DIGITAL OBJECT IDENTIFIER (DOI)

10.1111/j.1525-142X.2008.00227.x About DOI