title: Widespread parallel evolution in sticklebacks by repeated fixation of Ectodysplasin alleles.
abstract: Major phenotypic changes evolve in parallel in nature by molecular mechanisms that are largely unknown. Here, we use positional cloning methods to identify the major chromosome locus controlling armor plate patterning in wild threespine sticklebacks. Mapping, sequencing, and transgenic studies show that the Ectodysplasin (EDA) signaling pathway plays a key role in evolutionary change in natural populations and that parallel evolution of stickleback low-plated phenotypes at most freshwater locations around the world has occurred by repeated selection of Eda alleles derived from an ancestral low-plated haplotype that first appeared more than two million years ago. Members of this clade of low-plated alleles are present at low frequencies in marine fish, which suggests that standing genetic variation can provide a molecular basis for rapid, parallel evolution of dramatic phenotypic change in nature.
authors.affiliation: Department of Developmental Biology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305-5329, USA.
authors.forename: Pamela F
authors.initials: PF
authors.lastname: Colosimo
authors.forename: Kim E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Hosemann
authors.forename: Sarita
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Balabhadra
authors.forename: Guadalupe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Villarreal
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dickson
authors.forename: Jane
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Grimwood
authors.forename: Jeremy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Schmutz
authors.forename: Richard M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Myers
authors.forename: Dolph
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Schluter
authors.forename: David M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Kingsley
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D030801:Animals, Genetically Modified; D005075:Biological Evolution; D019521:Body Patterning; D016386:Chromosome Walking; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D053331:Ectodysplasins; D005618:Fresh Water; D005787:Gene Frequency; D014644:Genetic Variation; D006239:Haplotypes; D015810:Linkage Disequilibrium; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009154:Mutation; D010641:Phenotype; D010802:Phylogeny; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D012623:Seawater; D012641:Selection, Genetic; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D015398:Signal Transduction; D023701:Smegmamorpha / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development
chemical_list: D053331:Ectodysplasins; D008565:Membrane Proteins