GEPHE SUMMARY Print
Gephebase Gene
Entry Status
Published
GepheID
GP00000856
Main curator
Martin
PHENOTYPIC CHANGE
Trait Category
Trait State in Taxon A
Labeotropheus trewavasae
Trait State in Taxon B
Metriaclima mbenjii
Ancestral State
Taxon A
Taxonomic Status
Taxon A
Common Name
blue mbuna
Synonyms
blue mbuna; Labeotropheus fuelleborni Ahl, 1926
Rank
species
Lineage
Show more ... ypterygia; Ctenosquamata; Acanthomorphata; Euacanthomorphacea; Percomorphaceae; Ovalentaria; Cichlomorphae; Cichliformes; Cichlidae; African cichlids; Pseudocrenilabrinae; Haplochromini; Labeotropheus
NCBI Taxonomy ID
is Taxon A an Infraspecies?
No
Taxon B
Common Name
-
Synonyms
Maylandia mbenji; Metriaclima mbenji; Metriaclima mbenjii; Maylandia mbenjii (Stauffer, Bowers, Kellogg & McKaye, 1997); Metriaclima mbenjii Stauffer, Bowers, Kellogg & McKaye, 1997
Rank
species
Lineage
Show more ... Eurypterygia; Ctenosquamata; Acanthomorphata; Euacanthomorphacea; Percomorphaceae; Ovalentaria; Cichlomorphae; Cichliformes; Cichlidae; African cichlids; Pseudocrenilabrinae; Haplochromini; Maylandia
NCBI Taxonomy ID
is Taxon B an Infraspecies?
No
GENOTYPIC CHANGE
Presumptive Null
Molecular Type
Aberration Type
Molecular Details of the Mutation
Uncharacterized cis-regulatory change - with ancestral Labeotropheus (LF) allele exhibiting relatively higher levels of expression
Experimental Evidence
Authors
Roberts RB; Hu Y; Albertson RC; Kocher TD
Abstract
Adaptive variation in craniofacial structure contributes to resource specialization and speciation, but the genetic loci that underlie craniofacial adaptation remain unknown. Here we show that alleles of the hedgehog pathway receptor Patched1 (Ptch1) gene are responsible for adaptive variation in the shape of the lower jaw both within and among genera of Lake Malawi cichlid fish. The evolutionarily derived allele of Ptch1 reduces the length of the retroarticular (RA) process of the lower jaw, a change predicted to increase speed of jaw rotation for improved suction-feeding. The alternate allele is associated with a longer RA and a more robustly mineralized jaw, typical of species that use a biting mode of feeding. Genera with the most divergent feeding morphologies are nearly fixed for different Ptch1 alleles, whereas species with intermediate morphologies still segregate variation at Ptch1. Thus, the same alleles that help to define macroevolutionary divergence among genera also contribute to microevolutionary fine-tuning of adaptive traits within some species. Variability of craniofacial morphology mediated by Ptch1 polymorphism has likely contributed to niche partitioning and ecological speciation of these fishes.
RELATED GEPHE
Related Haplotypes
No matches found.
EXTERNAL LINKS
COMMENTS
QTL exhibited an additive mode of inheritance and accounted for 17% of the phenotypic variance in the F2 population
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