Cichlid fishes are famous for large, diverse and replicated adaptive radiations in the Great Lakes of East Africa. To understand the molecular mechanisms underlying cichlid phenotypic diversity, we sequenced the genomes and transcriptomes of five lineages of African cichlids: the Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus), an ancestral lineage with low diversity; and four members of the East African lineage: Neolamprologus brichardi/pulcher (older radiation, Lake Tanganyika), Metriaclima zebra (recent radiation, Lake Malawi), Pundamilia nyererei (very recent radiation, Lake Victoria), and Astatotilapia burtoni (riverine species around Lake Tanganyika). We found an excess of gene duplications in the East African lineage compared to tilapia and other teleosts, an abundance of non-coding element divergence, accelerated coding sequence evolution, expression divergence associated with transposable element insertions, and regulation by novel microRNAs. In addition, we analysed sequence data from sixty individuals representing six closely related species from Lake Victoria, and show genome-wide diversifying selection on coding and regulatory variants, some of which were recruited from ancient polymorphisms. We conclude that a number of molecular mechanisms shaped East African cichlid genomes, and that amassing of standing variation during periods of relaxed purifying selection may have been important in facilitating subsequent evolutionary diversification.

The purebred dog population consists of >300 partially inbred genetic isolates or breeds. Restriction of gene flow between breeds, together with strong selection for traits, has led to the establishment of a unique resource for dissecting the genetic basis of simple and complex mammalian traits. Toward this end, we present a comprehensive radiation hybrid map of the canine genome composed of 3,270 markers including 1,596 microsatellite-based markers, 900 cloned gene sequences and ESTs, 668 canine-specific bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) ends, and 106 sequence-tagged sites. The map was constructed by using the RHDF5000-2 whole-genome radiation hybrid panel and computed by using MULTIMAP and TSP͞CONCORDE. The 3,270 markers map to 3,021 unique positions and define an average intermarker distance corresponding to 1 Mb. We also define a minimal screening set of 325 highly informative well spaced markers, to be used in the initiation of genome-wide scans. The well defined synteny between the dog and human genomes, established in part as a function of this work by the identification of 85 conserved fragments, will allow follow-up of initial findings of linkage by selection of candidate genes from the human genome sequence. This work continues to define the canine system as the method of choice in the pursuit of the genes causing mammalian variation and disease.dog ͉ microsatellites ͉ ESTs ͉ bacterial artificial chromosome ends