A5049848577- Genetic diversity and population structure
- Aquatic Ecosystems and Biodiversity
- Fish Ecology and Management Studies
- Fish Biology and Ecology Studies
- Fish biology, ecology, and behavior
- Aquatic Ecosystems and Phytoplankton Dynamics
- Environmental DNA in Biodiversity Studies
- Genomics and Phylogenetic Studies
- Chromosomal and Genetic Variations
- Identification and Quantification in Food
- Wildlife Ecology and Conservation
- Animal Ecology and Behavior Studies
- Morphological variations and asymmetry
- Aquatic Invertebrate Ecology and Behavior
- Rangeland Management and Livestock Ecology
- Bioinformatics and Genomic Networks
- Genetic and phenotypic traits in livestock
- Evolution and Paleontology Studies
- Geology and Paleoclimatology Research
- Ecosystem dynamics and resilience
- Species Distribution and Climate Change
- Genetic and Clinical Aspects of Sex Determination and Chromosomal Abnormalities
- Environmental and Biological Research in Conflict Zones
- Genetics, Aging, and Longevity in Model Organisms
- Animal Behavior and Reproduction
Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology
2012-2024
University of Bern
2012-2024
Google (United States)
2018
Tanzania Fisheries Research Institute
2008-2010
Cichlid fishes are famous for large, diverse and replicated adaptive radiations in the Great Lakes of East Africa. To understand molecular mechanisms underlying cichlid phenotypic diversity, we sequenced genomes transcriptomes five lineages African cichlids: Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus), an ancestral lineage with low diversity; four members lineage: Neolamprologus brichardi/pulcher (older radiation, Lake Tanganyika), Metriaclima zebra (recent Malawi), Pundamilia nyererei (very recent...
Understanding why some evolutionary lineages generate exceptionally high species diversity is an important goal in biology. Haplochromine cichlid fishes of Africa's Lake Victoria region encompass >700 diverse that all evolved the last 150,000 years. How this 'Lake Region Superflock' could evolve on such rapid timescales enduring question. Here, we demonstrate hybridization between two divergent facilitated process by providing genetic variation subsequently became recombined and sorted into...
Abstract Although population genomic studies using next generation sequencing ( NGS ) data are becoming increasingly common, focusing on phylogenetic inference these in their infancy. Here, we use generated from reduced representation libraries of restriction‐site‐associated DNA RAD markers to infer relationships among 16 species cichlid fishes a single rocky island community within L ake V ictoria's adaptive radiation. Previous attempts at sequence‐based analyses ictoria cichlids have shown...
Ecological speciation is the process by which reproductively isolated populations emerge as a consequence of divergent natural or ecologically-mediated sexual selection. Most genomic studies ecological have investigated allopatric populations, making it difficult to infer reproductive isolation. The few on sympatric ecotypes focused advanced stages after thousands generations divergence. As consequence, we still do not know what signatures early onset look like. Here, examined...
Abstract Adaptive radiations are an important source of biodiversity and often characterized by many speciation events in very short succession. It has been proposed that the high rates these may be fuelled novel genetic combinations produced episodes hybridization among young species. The role such evolutionary history a group can investigated comparing genealogical relationships inferred from different subsets loci, but studies have thus far hampered shallow divergences, especially...
Although some lineages of animals and plants have made impressive adaptive radiations when provided with ecological opportunity, the propensities to radiate vary profoundly among for unknown reasons. In Africa's Lake Victoria region, one cichlid lineage radiated in every lake, largest radiation taking place a lake less than 16,000 years old. We show that all its guilds evolved situ. Cycles fusion through admixture fission speciation characterize history radiation. It was jump-started several...
The process of adaptive radiation was classically hypothesized to require isolation a lineage from its source (no gene flow) and related species competition). Alternatively, hybridization between may generate genetic variation that facilitates radiation. Here we study haplochromine cichlid assemblages in two African Great Lakes test these hypotheses. Greater biotic (fewer lineages) predicts fewer constraints by competition hence more ecological opportunity Lake Bangweulu, whereas for...
Adaptive radiations have been instrumental in generating a considerable amount of life's diversity. Ecological opportunity is thought to be prerequisite for adaptive radiation1, but little known about the relative importance species' ecological versatility versus effects arrival order determining which lineage radiates2. Palaeontological records that could help answer this are scarce. In Lake Victoria, large radiation cichlid fishes evolved an exceptionally short and recent time interval3....
New species typically evolve over several million years. However, rates of speciation and ecological diversification vary by orders magnitude across the tree life, with fastest shown some adaptive radiations. Eight hundred endemic cichlid fishes emerged formed entire food webs in Lake Victoria nearby lakes East Africa. According to Victorias paleolimnological history, five may have arisen within past 16,700 years, but molecular phylogenies estimated a much older origin. We reconstruct age...
Divergent selection acting on several different traits that cause multidimensional shifts are supposed to promote speciation, but the outcome of this process is highly dependent balance between strength vs. gene flow. Here, we studied a pair sister species Lake Victoria cichlids at location where they hybridize and tested hypothesis divergent can maintain phenotypic differentiation despite To explore possible role for correlations phenotypes environment compared divergence (P(ST)) with based...
Adaptive radiation is usually thought to be associated with speciation, but the evolution of intraspecific polymorphisms without speciation also possible. The cichlid fish in Lake Victoria (LV) perhaps most impressive example a recent rapid adaptive radiation, 600+ very young species. Key questions about its origin remain poorly characterized, such as importance versus polymorphism, whether species persist on evolutionary time scales, and if happens more commonly small isolated or large...
African cichlid fishes are a prime model for studying speciation mechanisms. Despite the development of extensive genomic resources, it has been difficult to determine which sources genetic variation responsible phenotypic variation. One their most variable phenotypes is visual sensitivity, with some largest spectral shifts among vertebrates. These arise primarily from differential expression seven cone opsin genes. By mapping quantitative trait loci (eQTL) in intergeneric crosses Lake...
Abstract Identifying patterns in genetic structure and the basis of ecological adaptation is a core goal evolutionary biology can inform management conservation species that are vulnerable to population declines exacerbated by climate change. We used reduced‐representation genomic sequencing methods gain better understanding among within populations Lake Tanganyika's two sardine species, Limnothrissa miodon Stolothrissa tanganicae . Samples these ecologically economically important were...
Adaptive radiation research typically relies on the study of evolution in retrospective, leaving predictive value concept hard to evaluate. Several radiations, including cichlid fishes East African Great Lakes, have been studied extensively, yet no has investigated onset intraspecific processes niche expansion and differentiation shortly after colonization an adaptive zone by cichlids. Haplochromine cichlids one two lineages that seeded Lake Victoria recently arrived Chala, a lake perfectly...
Lake Victoria is well known for its high diversity of endemic fish species and provides livelihoods millions people. The lake garnered widespread attention during the twentieth century as major environmental ecological changes modified community with extinction approximately 40% cichlid by 1980s. Suggested causal factors include anthropogenic eutrophication, fishing, introduced non-native but their relative importance remains unresolved, partly because monitoring data started in 1970s when...
Abstract The East African cichlid radiations are characterized by repeated and rapid diversification into many distinct species with different ecological specializations a history of hybridization events between nonsister species. Such might provide important fuel for adaptive radiation. Interspecific hybrids can have extreme trait values or novel combinations such transgressive phenotypes may allow some to explore niches neither the parental could tap into. Here, we investigate potential...
Reconstructing hydrological variability is critical for understanding Lake Victoria's ecosystem history, the evolution of its diverse endemic fish community, dynamics vegetation in catchment, and dispersal aquatic terrestrial fauna East African Rift system during Latest Pleistocene Holocene times. Whereas consensus exists on widespread desiccation Victoria ∼18 – 17 ka, re-filling history (16 13 ka) has remained highly controversial. Here, we present data from four new sediment cores along a...
Abstract Discerning ecosystem change and food web dynamics underlying anthropogenic eutrophication the introduction of non-native species is necessary for ensuring long-term sustainability fisheries lake biodiversity. Previous studies in Lake Victoria, eastern Africa, have focused on loss endemic fish biodiversity over past several decades, but changes plankton communities this same time remain unclear. To fill gap, we examined sediment cores from a eutrophic embayment, Mwanza Gulf, to...
Colour polymorphisms have fascinated evolutionary ecologists for a long time. Yet, knowledge on the mechanisms that allow their persistence is restricted to handful of well-studied cases. We studied two species Lake Victoria cichlid fish, Neochromis omnicaeruleus and greenwoodi, exhibiting very similar sex-linked colour polymorphisms. The ecology behaviour one these well studied, with colour-based mating aggression preferences. Here, we ask whether selection potentially resulting from female...