Behavioral Approaches to Studying Innate Stress in Zebrafish

Chin, Jacqueline S. R.; Albert, Lydia T.; Loomis, Cody L.; Keene, Alex C.; Duboué, Erik R.

doi:10.3791/59092

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…Phylogeographic analyses suggest that cave populations arose from at least two distinct colonization events from two distinct surface ancestral lineages within the last 200,000 years, and that since the initial colonization most cave populations have evolved relatively independently from one another, although there is evidence of gene flow between some cave populations (Moran et al 2023;Herman et al 2018;Coghill et al 2014;Bradic et al 2012). To varying degrees, cave populations have convergently evolved common phenotypes consisting of morphological traits, most notably degenerated eyes and reduced pigmentation (Jeffery 2001(Jeffery , 2020, as well as behavioral characteristics such as decreased sleep, schooling, and stress behaviors (Kowalko et al 2013b;Duboue et al 2011;Chin et al 2019). The most frequently studied cave populations include the Pachón and Tinaja cave populations, originated from caves located in the Sierra de El Abra region of Mexico, and the Molino cave population, from the nearby Sierra de la Guatemala (Jeffery 2020).…”

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confidence: 99%

Loci associated with cave-derived traits concentrate in specific regions of the Mexican cavefish genome

Wiese,

Richards,

Kowalko

et al. 2024

Preprint

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A major goal of modern evolutionary biology is connecting phenotypic evolution with its underlying genetic basis. The Mexican cavefish (Astyanax mexicanus), a characin fish species comprised of a surface ecotype and a cave-derived ecotype, is well suited as a model to study the genetic mechanisms underlying adaptation to extreme environments. Here we map 206 previously published quantitative trait loci (QTL) for cave-derived traits inA. mexicanusto the newest version of the surface fish genome assembly, AstMex3. This analysis revealed that QTL cluster in the genome more than expected by chance, and this clustering is not explained by the distribution of genes in the genome. To investigate whether certain characteristics of the genome facilitate phenotypic evolution, we tested whether genomic characteristics, such as highly mutagenic CpG sites, are reliable predictors of the sites of trait evolution but did not find any significant trends. Finally, we combined the QTL map with previously collected expression and selection data to identify a list of 36 candidate genes that may underlie the repeated evolution of cave phenotypes, includingrgrbwhich is predicted to be involved in phototransduction. We found this gene has disrupted exons in all non-hybrid cave populations but intact reading frames in surface fish. Overall, our results suggest specific evolutionary hotspots in the genome may play significant roles in driving adaptation to the cave environment inA. mexicanusand demonstrate how this compiled dataset can facilitate our understanding of the genetic basis of repeated evolution in the Mexican cavefish.

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