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Updated: May 19, 2026

Manipulation of Gene Function in Mexican Cavefish
Published on: April 22, 2019
Parental genetic effects in a cavefish adaptive behavior explain disparity between nuclear and mitochondrial DNA
Masato Yoshizawa1, Go Ashida, William R Jeffery
1Department of Biology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA. yossy@umd.edu
Abstract:
Epigenetic parental genetic effects are important in many biological processes but their roles in the evolution of adaptive traits and their consequences in naturally evolving populations remain to be addressed. By comparing two divergent blind cave-dwelling cavefish populations with a sighted surface-dwelling population (surface fish) of the teleost Astyanax mexicanus, we report here that convergences in vibration attraction behavior (VAB), the lateral line sensory receptors underlying this behavior, and the feeding benefits of this behavior are controlled by parental genetic effects, either maternal or paternal inheritance. From behavioral studies and mathematical evolutionary simulations, we further demonstrate that disparity in nuclear and mitochondrial DNA in one of these cavefish populations that has hybridized with surface fish can be explained by paternal inheritance of VAB. The results suggest that parental genetic effects in adaptive behaviors may be important factors in biasing mitochondrial DNA inheritance in natural populations that are subject to introgression.
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