Work

Behavior-dependent cis regulation reveals genes and pathways associated with bower building in cichlid fishes

Year: 2018

Type: article

Abstract: Significance We do not fully understand how behavior evolves. Here we investigate the genomic basis of bower building among Lake Malawi cichlid fishes. Males construct bowers of two major types, pits and castles, to attract females in mating displays. Thousands of genetic variants are strongly associated with divergence in bower behavior. Remarkably, F 1 hybrids of pit-digging and castle-building species perform sequential construction of first pit and then castle bowers. Analysis of brain gene expression in hybrids showed behavior-dependent allele-specific expression with preferential expression of pit-digging alleles during pit digging and castle-building alleles during castle building. Our results suggest that behaviors evolve via complex genetic architectures featuring cis -regulatory differences whose effects on gene expression are specific and context dependent.

Source: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1810140115