Evolutionary shift towards lateral line dependent prey capture behavior in the blind Mexican cavefish

Lloyd, Evan; Olive, Courtney; Stahl, Bethany A.; Jaggard, James B.; Amaral, Paloma M.; Duboué, Erik R.; Keene, Alex C.

doi:10.1016/j.ydbio.2018.04.027

Cited by 63 publications

(85 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…These approaches have been used to characterize functional differences of the lateral line between surface and cavefish. An expansion of the lateral line is thought to underlie the reduced dependence on visual processing in cavefish, and confer increased vibration sensitivity and reduced sleep, presumably to improve foraging [33][34][35]. Genetic labeling of the lateral line using the transgenic fish is highly superior to physical labeling with DASPEI because it allows more fine-scale assessment of neurons involved in lateral line function between cavefish and surface fish.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stable transgenesis in Astyanax mexicanus using the Tol2 transposase system

Stahl

Peuß

McDole

et al. 2019

Preprint

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Astyanax mexicanus is a well-established and widely used fish model system for evolutionary and developmental biology research. These fish exist as surface forms that inhabit rivers and 30 different populations of cavefish. The establishment of A. mexicanus as an emergent model organism for understanding the evolutionary basis of development and behavior has been accelerated by an increasing availability of genomic approaches to identify genotype-phenotype associations. Despite important progress in the deployment of new technologies, deep mechanistic insights into A. mexicanus evolution and development have been limited by a lack of transgenic lines commonly used in genetic model systems. Here, we expand the toolkit of transgenesis by characterizing two novel stable transgenic lines that were generated using the highly efficient Tol2 system, commonly used to generate transgenic zebrafish. A stable transgenic line consisting of the zebrafish ubiquitin promoter fused to eGFP expressed eGFP ubiquitously throughout development in a surface population of Astyanax. To define specific cell-types, we injected fish with a Cntnap2-mCherry construct that labels lateral line mechanosensory neurons in zebrafish. Strikingly, both constructs appear to label the predicted cell types, suggesting many genetic tools and defined promoter regions in zebrafish are directly transferrable to cavefish. The lines provide proof-of-principle for the application of Tol2 transgenic technology in A. mexicanus. Expansion on these initial transgenic lines will provide a platform to address broadly important problems in the quest to bridge the genotype to phenotype gap.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stable transgenesis in Astyanax mexicanus using the Tol2 transposase system

Stahl

Peuß

McDole

et al. 2019

Preprint

Self Cite

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“…These approaches have been used to characterize functional differences of the lateral line between surface and cavefish. An expansion of the lateral line is thought to underlie the reduced dependence on visual processing in cavefish, and confer increased vibration sensitivity and reduced sleep, presumably to improve foraging . Genetic labeling of the lateral line using the transgenic fish is highly superior to physical labeling with DASPEI because it allows more fine‐scale assessment of neurons involved in lateral line function between cavefish and surface fish.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…An expansion of the lateral line is thought to underlie the reduced dependence on visual processing in cavefish, and confer increased vibration sensitivity and reduced sleep, presumably to improve foraging. 23,35,36 Genetic labeling of the lateral line using the transgenic fish is highly superior to physical labeling with DASPEI because it allows more fine-scale assessment of neurons involved in lateral line function between cavefish and surface fish. The lateral line neuromast projections can be examined for anatomical differences between populations of A. mexicanus.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stable transgenesis in Astyanax mexicanus using the Tol2 transposase system

Stahl

Peuß

McDole

et al. 2019

Developmental Dynamics

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Background Astyanax mexicanus is a well‐established fish model system for evolutionary and developmental biology research. These fish exist as surface forms that inhabit rivers and 30 different populations of cavefish. Despite important progress in the deployment of new technologies, deep mechanistic insights into the genetic basis of evolution, development, and behavior have been limited by a lack of transgenic lines commonly used in genetic model systems. Results Here, we expand the toolkit of transgenesis by characterizing two novel stable transgenic lines that were generated using the highly efficient Tol2 system, commonly used to generate transgenic zebrafish. A stable transgenic line consisting of the zebrafish ubiquitin promoter expresses enhanced green fluorescent protein ubiquitously throughout development in a surface population of Astyanax. To define specific cell‐types, a Cntnap2‐mCherry construct labels lateral line mechanosensory neurons in zebrafish. Strikingly, both constructs appear to label the predicted cell types, suggesting many genetic tools and defined promoter regions in zebrafish are directly transferrable to cavefish. Conclusion The lines provide proof‐of‐principle for the application of Tol2 transgenic technology in A. mexicanus. Expansion on these initial transgenic lines will provide a platform to address broadly important problems in the quest to bridge the genotype‐phenotype gap.

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“…Of the three cave populations used in this study, those from the Tinaja and Pachón caves form a clade separate from Molino cavefish (Herman et al, 2018). The populations are interfertile and amenable to genetic manipulation (Stahl et al, 2019) allowing researchers to investigate the genetic changes associated with behavioral (Chin et al, 2018;Hyacinthe, Attia, & Rétaux, 2019;Lloyd et al, 2018;Yoshizawa et al, 2015) metabolic (Aspiras, Rohner, Martineau, Borowsky, & Tabin, 2015;Riddle, Aspiras, et al, 2018;Xiong, Krishnan, Peuß, & Rohner, 2018), and morphological (Gross & Powers, 2018;Lyon, Powers, Gross, & O'Quin, 2017) cave-adapted traits, and utilize the different cave populations as natural replicates.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetic architecture underlying changes in carotenoid accumulation during the evolution of the Blind Mexican cavefish,Astyanax mexicanus

Riddle

Aspiras

Damen

et al. 2019

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Research Highlights• Cavefish accumulate carotenoids in the visceral adipose tissue (VAT)• Genetic mapping reveals candidate genes associated with yellow VAT • Carotenoid accumulation is linked with decreased expression of carotenoidprocessing genes AbstractCarotenoids are yellow to orange pigments produced by plants, bacteria, and fungi. They are consumed by animals and metabolized to produce molecules essential for gene regulation, vision, and pigmentation. Cave animals represent an interesting opportunity to understand how carotenoid utilization evolves. Caves are devoid of light, eliminating primary production of energy through photosynthesis and therefore limiting carotenoid availability. Moreover, the selective pressures that favor carotenoid-based traits, like pigmentation and vision, are relaxed. Astyanax mexicanus is a species of fish with riveradapted (surface) and multiple cave-adapted populations (i.e. Tinaja, Pachón, Molino).Cavefish exhibit regressive features such as loss of eyes and melanin pigment, and constructive traits, like increased sensory neuromasts and starvation resistance. Here we show that unlike surface fish, Tinaja and Pachón cavefish accumulate carotenoids in the visceral adipose tissue (VAT). Carotenoid accumulation is not observed in Molino cavefish indicating that it is not an obligatory consequence of eye loss. We used quantitative trait loci mapping and RNA sequencing to investigate genetic changes associated with this trait.Our findings suggest that multiple stages of carotenoid processing may be altered in cavefish, including absorption and transport of lipids, cleavage of carotenoids into unpigmented molecules, and differential development of intestinal cell types involved in carotenoid assimilation. Our study establishes A. mexicanus as a model to study the genetic basis of natural variation in carotenoid accumulation and how it impacts physiology.

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Evolutionary shift towards lateral line dependent prey capture behavior in the blind Mexican cavefish

Cited by 63 publications

References 61 publications

Stable transgenesis in Astyanax mexicanus using the Tol2 transposase system

Stable transgenesis in Astyanax mexicanus using the Tol2 transposase system

Stable transgenesis in Astyanax mexicanus using the Tol2 transposase system

Genetic architecture underlying changes in carotenoid accumulation during the evolution of the Blind Mexican cavefish,Astyanax mexicanus

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