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Parallelism in eco-morphology and gene expression despite variable evolutionary and genomic backgrounds in a
Arne Jacobs1, Madeleine Carruthers1, Andrey Yurchenko1
1Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom.
Plos Genetics
|April 18, 2020
Summary
Ecological divergence in Arctic charr shows repeatable patterns in traits and gene expression, demonstrating predictable adaptation. This parallel evolution is influenced by genetic variation, ecosystem size, and environmental factors.
Area of Science:
- Evolutionary Biology
- Ecology
- Genomics
Background:
- Predicting biodiversity responses to environmental change requires understanding repeatable ecological divergence.
- Arctic charr (Salvelinus alpinus) provide a model system to study parallel evolution across replicate populations.
Purpose of the Study:
- To test the predictability of evolution from genotype to phenotype in Arctic charr.
- To investigate parallel evolution of eco-morphology and gene expression across different ecotypes and evolutionary lineages.
Main Methods:
- Studied eleven replicate sympatric ecotype pairs of Arctic charr.
- Analyzed eco-morphological traits, genetic variation (loci association, cis-eQTL), and transcriptome-wide gene expression.
- Compared divergence across varying evolutionary histories (postglacial and pre-glacial divergence with secondary contact).
Main Results:
- Found high parallelism in foraging-related traits (eye diameter, pectoral fin length) and gene expression across replicate populations and lineages.
- Identified shared genetic variation at hundreds of loci, with eight loci shared across lineages.
- Demonstrated that phenotypic divergence magnitude correlates with genetic and gene expression divergence, while direction is influenced by genetic variation, gene expression, and ecosystem size.
Conclusions:
- Eco-morphology and gene expression evolve in parallel within and across Arctic charr lineages.
- Parallel evolution is shaped by environmental stochasticity and evolutionary contingencies, overcoming varied evolutionary histories and genomic backgrounds.
- Findings highlight the predictable nature of adaptation in response to environmental change.
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