The genetics of niche-specific behavioral tendencies in an adaptive radiation of cichlid fishes

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Sommer-Trembo, Carolin; Santos, M. Emilia; Clark, Bethan; Werner, Marco; Fages, Antoine; Matschiner, Michael; Hornung, Simon; Ronco, Fabrizia; Oliver, Chantal; Garcia, Cody; Tschopp, Patrick; Malinsky, Milan; Salzburger, Walter
• 署名单位: University of Basel; University of Cambridge; Leibniz Institut fur Polymerforschung Dresden; University of Oslo; University of Bern
• 刊物名称: SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0036-10790
• DOI: 10.1126/science.adj9228
• 发表日期: 2024-04-26
• 页码: 470-475
• 关键词: alignment; personality; EVOLUTION; selection; tools; vista

摘要

Behavior is critical for animal survival and reproduction, and possibly for diversification and evolutionary radiation. However, the genetics behind adaptive variation in behavior are poorly understood. In this work, we examined a fundamental and widespread behavioral trait, exploratory behavior, in one of the largest adaptive radiations on Earth, the cichlid fishes of Lake Tanganyika. By integrating quantitative behavioral data from 57 cichlid species (702 wild-caught individuals) with high-resolution ecomorphological and genomic information, we show that exploratory behavior is linked to macrohabitat niche adaptations in Tanganyikan cichlids. Furthermore, we uncovered a correlation between the genotypes at a single-nucleotide polymorphism upstream of the AMPA glutamate-receptor regulatory gene cacng5b and variation in exploratory tendency. We validated this association using behavioral predictions with a neural network approach and CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing.