title: Genomic signatures of rapid adaptive evolution in the bluespotted cornetfish, a Mediterranean Lessepsian invader.
abstract: Biological invasions are increasingly creating ecological and economical problems both on land and in aquatic environments. For over a century, the Mediterranean Sea has steadily been invaded by Indian Ocean/Red Sea species (called Lessepsian invaders) via the Suez Canal, with a current estimate of ~450 species. The bluespotted cornetfish, Fistularia commersonii, considered a 'Lessepsian sprinter', entered the Mediterranean in 2000 and by 2007 had spread through the entire basin from Israel to Spain. The situation is unique and interesting both because of its unprecedented rapidity and by the fact that it took this species c. 130 years to immigrate into the Mediterranean. Using genome scans, with restriction site-associated DNA (RAD) sequencing, we evaluated neutral and selected genomic regions for Mediterranean vs. Red Sea cornetfish individuals. We found that few fixed neutral changes were detectable among populations. However, almost half of the genes associated with the 47 outlier loci (potentially under selection) were related to disease resistance and osmoregulation. Due to the short time elapsed from the beginning of the invasion to our sampling, we interpret these changes as signatures of rapid adaptation that may be explained by several mechanisms including preadaptation and strong local selection. Such genomic regions are therefore good candidates to further study their role in invasion success.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California Santa Cruz, 100 Shaffer Road, Santa Cruz, CA, 95060, USA.
authors.forename: Giacomo
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-8249-4678
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bernardi
authors.affiliation: ISPRA, Institute for Environmental Protection and Research, Sts Livorno, Piazzale dei Marmi 2, 57123, Livorno, Italy.
authors.forename: Ernesto
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Azzurro
authors.affiliation: Department of Evolution, Systematics and Ecology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 91904, Jerusalem, Israel.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Golani
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Science, University of California, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA, 95616, USA.
authors.forename: Michael Ryan
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Miller
mesh_terms: D000220:Adaptation, Biological / Q000235:genetics*; D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005828:Genetics, Population; D005838:Genotype; D019156:Indian Ocean; D058865:Introduced Species; D008522:Mediterranean Sea; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D023701:Smegmamorpha / Q000235:genetics*
keywords: Fistularia commersonii; biological invasions; population genomics; preadaptation