Widespread parallel evolution in sticklebacks by repeated fixation of Ectodysplasin alleles.
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.
Colosimo
Pamela F
PF
Department of Developmental Biology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305-5329, USA.
Hosemann
Kim E
KE
Balabhadra
Sarita
S
Villarreal
Guadalupe
G
Dickson
Mark
M
Grimwood
Jane
J
Schmutz
Jeremy
J
Myers
Richard M
RM
Schluter
Dolph
D
Kingsley
David M
DM
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
D053331:Ectodysplasins; D008565:Membrane Proteins