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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jan 3, 2026

Microinjection for Transgenesis and Genome Editing in Threespine Sticklebacks

Microinjection for Transgenesis and Genome Editing in Threespine Sticklebacks

Published on: May 13, 2016

Climate-driven habitat change causes evolution in Threespine Stickleback.

Simone Des Roches¹, Michael A Bell², Eric P Palkovacs¹

¹Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA, USA.

Global Change Biology

|November 22, 2019

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Climate change is altering California estuaries, favoring low-plated stickleback fish. This habitat shift is reducing genetic diversity, potentially impacting future adaptation for these populations.

Keywords:

Gasterosteus aculeatus adaptation climate change intraspecific variation latitudinal gradient rapid evolution resurvey space-for-time

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Area of Science:

Evolutionary biology
Ecology
Climate change science

Background:

Climate change directly alters abiotic conditions and indirectly modifies habitats, influencing evolution.
Few studies have investigated the impact of climate-driven habitat change on contemporary evolution.
Threespine Stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) in California estuaries provide a model for studying rapid evolutionary responses.

Purpose of the Study:

To examine the evolution of Threespine Stickleback in response to climate-driven habitat changes in California bar-built estuaries.
To investigate the relationship between climate, habitat transformation, and genetic changes in stickleback populations.
To assess the impact of these changes on genetic variation and potential for future adaptation.

Main Methods:

Resampling of Threespine Stickleback populations along a latitudinal gradient in California estuaries.
Utilizing the association between lateral plate phenotypes and Ectodysplasin A (Eda) genotypes to infer allele frequency changes.
Analyzing phenotypic and genotypic data in relation to climatic variables and habitat characteristics (lotic vs. lentic).

Main Results:

The frequency of low-plated alleles in stickleback populations has generally increased over time, while heterozygosity has decreased.
Latitudinal patterns indicate that evolution at the Eda gene is a response to climate-driven habitat transformation, not direct climate effects.
Estuaries have shifted from flowing (lotic) to still (lentic) habitats due to reduced precipitation and increased drought, favoring the low-plated allele.

Conclusions:

Climate-driven habitat change in California estuaries is driving evolutionary shifts in Threespine Stickleback populations.
The low-plated allele has reached fixation in the driest, southernmost sites and is progressing northward.
This evolutionary trend is reducing genetic variation, which may impede the adaptive capacity of stickleback populations facing multiple environmental threats.