Worldwide phylogeny of three-spined sticklebacks

Abstract

Stickleback fishes in the family Gasterosteidae have become model organisms in ecology and evolutionary biology. However, even in the case of the most widely studied species in this family - the three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) - the worldwide phylogenetic relationships and colonization history of the different populations and lineages remain poorly resolved. Using a large collection of samples covering most parts of the species distribution range, we subjected thousands of single nucleotide polymorphisms to coalescent analyses in order to reconstruct a robust worldwide phylogeny of extant G. aculeatus populations, as well as their ancestral geographic distributions using Statistical-Dispersal Vicariance and Bayesian Binary MCMC analyses. The results suggest that contemporary populations originated from the Pacific Ocean in the Late Pleistocene, and the Atlantic was colonized through the Arctic Ocean by a lineage that diverged from Pacific sticklebacks ca 44.6 Kya. This lineage contains two branches: one that is distributed in the Mediterranean area, from the Iberian Peninsula to the Black Sea ('Southern European Clade'), and another that is comprised of populations from northern Europe and the east coast of North America ('Trans-Atlantic Clade'). Hence, the results suggest that the North American East Coast was colonized by trans-Atlantic migration. Coalescence-based divergence time estimates suggest that divergence among major clades is much more recent than previously estimated.

Intercontinental genomic parallelism in multiple adaptive radiations

“…In addition to being close together in the NJ tree, we found that the geographically adjacent radiations were also the most genetically similar (Supplementary Table 7): Alaska and BC (mean pairwise F ST = 0.198), and Scotland and Iceland (F ST = 0.194), suggesting that although these form independent clusters, the lineage split between them is relatively recent, or that any gene flow between radiations is occurring within the Atlantic and Pacific groups. Genetic divergence between inter-continental pairings was found to be stronger and deeper (0.314 ⍰ F ST ⍰ 0.338) than within continents, which is consistent with previous studies that have estimated the time of divergence between stickleback from Europe and North America to be approximately 200,000 years ( 40,41 but see 42 ). Further, between-continent structuring accounts for the largest proportion of molecular variance in our data (AMOVA: σ = 889.7, 34.7%).…”

Biogeography, habitat transitions and hybridization in a radiation of South American silverside fishes revealed by mitochondrial and genomic RAD data

“…According to this model, marine populations of O. argentinensis entering the coastal lagoons and brackish estuaries along the coastal plain of Uruguay (Mirim), southern Brazil (dos Patos, Tramandaí) and Argentina (Mar Chiquita) gave rise repeatedly to phenotypically variable species flocks, similar to well‐documented marine‐to‐freshwater transitions in marine stickleback fishes in Asia, Europe and North America (Bell & Foster, ). In sticklebacks, independently derived freshwater populations are nested in divergent marine clades (Fang, Merilä, Ribeiro, Alexandre, & Momigliano, ). The RAD phylogeny for Odontesthes , in contrast, strongly supports a single group containing freshwater species sister to the marine O. argentinensis (Figure b).…”

“…America (Bell & Foster, 1994). In sticklebacks, independently derived freshwater populations are nested in divergent marine clades (Fang, Merilä, Ribeiro, Alexandre, & Momigliano, 2018). The RAD phylogeny for Odontesthes, in contrast, strongly supports a single group containing freshwater species sister to the marine O. argentinensis (Figure 2b).…”

An experimental test of how parasites of predators can influence trophic cascades and ecosystem functioning

“…, Fang et al. ). Previous work has shown that stickleback from the Lake Constance population have a more pelagic phenotype and feed more efficiently on pelagic prey than stickleback from the Lake Geneva population (Lucek et al.…”

“…The co-evolutionary history of stickleback populations with their parasite community might also influence how parasite load affects stickleback-mediated trophic cascades. In our experiment, we used stickleback from two European lineages that have recently colonized Switzerland: an eastern European lineage, represented by the population in Lake Constance, and a western European lineage, represented by the population in Lake Geneva (Lucek et al 2010, Best et al 2017, Fang et al 2018. Previous work has shown that stickleback from the Lake Constance population have a more pelagic phenotype and feed more efficiently on pelagic prey than stickleback from the Lake Geneva population (Lucek et al 2010, Best et al 2017).…”