Genetics of Lateral Plate and Gillraker Phenotypes in a Rapidly Evolving Population of Threespine Stickleback

Aguirre, Windsor E.; Doherty, Patricia K.; Bell, Michael A.

doi:10.1163/1568539042948105

Cited by 41 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…In agreement with earlier studies, we found substantial heritability of lateral plate number, h 2 = 0.93 (previous estimates of h 2 : 0.90 (Aguirre et al. ), 0.84 (Hagen and Gilbertson ), 0.46 (Loehr et al. ), and 0.37 (Hermida et al.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Lateral plate number in low‐plated threespine stickleback: a study of plasticity and heritability

Hansson

Fischer

Mazzarella

et al. 2016

Ecology and Evolution

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In the threespine stickleback Gasterosteus aculeatus model system, phenotypes are often classified into three morphs according to lateral plate number. Morph identity has been shown to be largely genetically determined, but substantial within‐morph variation in plate number exists. In this study, we test whether plate number has a plastic component in response to salinity in the low‐plated morph using a split‐clutch experiment where families were split in two, one half raised in water at 0 and the other at 30 ppt salt. We find a small salinity‐induced plastic effect on plate number in an unexpected direction, opposite to what we predicted: Fish raised in freshwater on average have slightly more plates than fish raised in saltwater. Our results confirm that heritability of plate number is high. Additionally, we find that variance in plate number at the family level can be predicted from other family level traits, which might indicate that epistatic interactions play a role in creating the observed pattern of lateral plate number variation.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Lateral plate number in low‐plated threespine stickleback: a study of plasticity and heritability

Hansson

Fischer

Mazzarella

et al. 2016

Ecology and Evolution

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“…Together, the intermediate coloration, the variation in shape patterns, the increased size, and polymorphic plating relative to the red and black morphs all create a unique and perplexing story within Connor Creek. Although we are not certain how much of the measured variation in morphology and color reflects underlying genetic variation, many of the traits we examined are shown to be heritable (Aguirre, Doherty, & Bell, ; McPhail, ) and have been genetically mapped (Albert et al, ; Colosimo et al, ; Cresko et al, ; Peichel & Marques, ; Schluter et al, ; Yong et al, ). Given the genetic basis of these traits, the larger size of anadromous stickleback relative to freshwater forms (Head et al, ), the similarity in nuptial coloration and body armor of the red freshwater morph and anadromous form (Bell, ; McKinnon & Rundle, ), as well as its proximity to the Pacific Ocean, it is possible that the phenotypic variation we observe in Connor Creek is the result of introgressive hybridization between anadromous stickleback and the black morph that resides further upstream, or a combination of introgression and environmental variation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Phenotypic divergence among threespine stickleback that differ in nuptial coloration

Jenck

Lehto

Ketterman

et al. 2020

Ecology and Evolution

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By studying systems in their earliest stages of differentiation, we can learn about the evolutionary forces acting within and among populations and how those forces could contribute to reproductive isolation. Such an understanding would help us to better discern and predict how selection leads to the maintenance of multiple morphs within a species, rather than speciation. The postglacial adaptive radiation of the threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) is one of the best‐studied cases of evolutionary diversification and rapid, repeated speciation. Following deglaciation, marine stickleback have continually invaded freshwater habitats across the northern hemisphere and established resident populations that diverged innumerable times from their oceanic ancestors. Independent freshwater colonization events have yielded broadly parallel patterns of morphological differences in freshwater and marine stickleback. However, there is also much phenotypic diversity within and among freshwater populations. We studied a lesser‐known freshwater “species pair” found in southwest Washington, where male stickleback in numerous locations have lost the ancestral red sexual signal and instead develop black nuptial coloration. We measured phenotypic variation in a suite of traits across sites where red and black stickleback do not overlap in distribution and at one site where they historically co‐occurred. We found substantial phenotypic divergence between red and black morphs in noncolor traits including shape and lateral plating, and additionally find evidence that supports the hypothesis of sensory drive as the mechanism responsible for the evolutionary switch in color from red to black. A newly described third “mixed” morph in Connor Creek, Washington, differs in head shape and size from the red and black morphs, and we suggest that their characteristics are most consistent with hybridization between anadromous and freshwater stickleback. These results lay the foundation for future investigation of the underlying genetic basis of this phenotypic divergence as well as the evolutionary processes that may drive, maintain, or limit divergence among morphs.

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“…These differences among traits could be shaped by different patterns of inheritance (Berner et al ., ; Hangartner et al ., ). For instance, our results are consistent with previous studies on stickleback demonstrating a strong genetic basis for body shape (McPhail, ; Cresko et al ., ; Schluter et al ., ; Albert et al ., ; Berner et al ., ; Leinonen et al ., ; Rogers et al ., ; Arnegard et al ., ) and gill raker number (Hagen, ; McPhail, ; Peichel et al ., ; Aguirre et al ., ; Berner et al ., ; Arnegard et al ., ; Glazer et al ., ). By contrast, although some studies have detected a genetic basis for differences in gill raker length (Lavin & McPhail, ; Schluter, ; Hatfield, ), other studies have reported a strong plastic effect in stickleback (Day et al ., ; Svanbäck & Schluter, ; Wund et al ., ; Lucek et al ., ) and in many other fishes (Robinson & Parsons, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does plasticity enhance or dampen phenotypic parallelism? A test with three lake–stream stickleback pairs

Oke

Bukhari

Kaeuffer

et al. 2015

J of Evolutionary Biology

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Parallel (and convergent) phenotypic variation is most often studied in the wild, where it is difficult to disentangle genetic vs. environmentally induced effects. As a result, the potential contributions of phenotypic plasticity to parallelism (and nonparallelism) are rarely evaluated in a formal sense. Phenotypic parallelism could be enhanced by plasticity that causes stronger parallelism across populations in the wild than would be expected from genetic differences alone. Phenotypic parallelism could be dampened if site-specific plasticity induced differences between otherwise genetically parallel populations. We used a common-garden study of three independent lake-stream stickleback population pairs to evaluate the extent to which adaptive divergence has a genetic or plastic basis, and to investigate the enhancing vs. dampening effects of plasticity on phenotypic parallelism. We found that lake-stream differences in most traits had a genetic basis, but that several traits also showed contributions from plasticity. Moreover, plasticity was much more prevalent in one watershed than in the other two. In most cases, plasticity enhanced phenotypic parallelism, whereas in a few cases, plasticity had a dampening effect. Genetic and plastic contributions to divergence seem to play a complimentary, likely adaptive, role in phenotypic parallelism of lake-stream stickleback. These findings highlight the value of formally comparing wild-caught and laboratory-reared individuals in the study of phenotypic parallelism.

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Genetics of Lateral Plate and Gillraker Phenotypes in a Rapidly Evolving Population of Threespine Stickleback

Cited by 41 publications

References 40 publications

Lateral plate number in low‐plated threespine stickleback: a study of plasticity and heritability

Lateral plate number in low‐plated threespine stickleback: a study of plasticity and heritability

Phenotypic divergence among threespine stickleback that differ in nuptial coloration

Does plasticity enhance or dampen phenotypic parallelism? A test with three lake–stream stickleback pairs

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