The physiology of rapid ecological specialization: A look at the Midas cichlids

Molecular Ecology
Michelle R GaitherPavithiran Amirthalingam

Abstract

Understanding the process of speciation is a primary goal of evolutionary biology, yet the question of whether speciation can reach completion in the presence of gene flow remains controversial. For more than 50 years, the cichlids of Africa, and more recently those in South and Central America, have served as model systems for the study of speciation in nature. Cichlids are distinguished by their enormous species richness, their diversity of behavioural and trophic adaptations, and their rapid rate of divergence. In both Africa and South and Central America, the repeated interaction of geology, new founder events and adaptive evolution has created a series of natural experiments with speciation occurring both within and between waterbodies of differing ages. In the "From the Cover" paper in this issue of the Journal of Molecular Ecology, Raffini, Schneider, Franchini, Kautt and Meyer move beyond the question of which mechanisms drive speciation, and instead show that divergent morphologies and physiologies translate into adaptive traits. They investigate differences in physiology and gene expression profiles in a benthic/limnetic species pair of Midas cichlidsin a 24,000-year-old Nicaraguan crater lake. While recently diverged...Continue Reading

References

Jul 1, 1992·The American Naturalist·D Schluter, J D McPhail
Aug 7, 2013·Ecology and Evolution·C D HulseyJ T Streelman
May 2, 2017·Frontiers in Endocrinology·Ivar RønnestadHélène Volkoff

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