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Lateral line system diversification during the early stages of ecological speciation in cichlid fish

Edgley, Duncan E.; Carruthers, Madeleine; Gabagambi, Nestory P.; Saxon, Andrew D.; Smith, Alan M.; Joyce, Domino A.; Vernaz, Grégoire; Santos, M. Emília; Turner, George F.; Genner, Martin J.

Authors

Duncan E. Edgley

Madeleine Carruthers

Nestory P. Gabagambi

Andrew D. Saxon

Alan M. Smith

Grégoire Vernaz

M. Emília Santos

George F. Turner

Martin J. Genner



Abstract

Background: The mechanosensory lateral line system is an important sensory modality in fishes, informing multiple behaviours related to survival including finding food and navigating in dark environments. Given its ecological importance, we may expect lateral line morphology to be under disruptive selection early in the ecological speciation process. Here we quantify the lateral line system morphology of two ecomorphs of the cichlid fish Astatotilapia calliptera in crater Lake Masoko that have diverged from common ancestry within the past 1,000 years. Results: Based on geometric morphometric analyses of CT scans, we show that the zooplanktivorous benthic ecomorph that dominates the deeper waters of the lake has large cranial lateral line canal pores, relative to those of the nearshore invertebrate-feeding littoral ecomorph found in the shallower waters. In contrast, fluorescence imaging revealed no evidence for divergence between ecomorphs in the number of either superficial or canal neuromasts. We illustrate the magnitude of the variation we observe in Lake Masoko A. calliptera in the context of the neighbouring Lake Malawi mega-radiation that comprises over 700 species. Conclusions: These results provide the first evidence of divergence in this often-overlooked sensory modality in the early stages of ecological speciation, suggesting that it may have a role in the broader adaptive radiation process.

Citation

Edgley, D. E., Carruthers, M., Gabagambi, N. P., Saxon, A. D., Smith, A. M., Joyce, D. A., …Genner, M. J. (2024). Lateral line system diversification during the early stages of ecological speciation in cichlid fish. BMC Ecology and Evolution, 24(1), Article 24. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12862-024-02214-5

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Feb 9, 2024
Online Publication Date Feb 20, 2024
Publication Date Dec 1, 2024
Deposit Date Apr 23, 2024
Publicly Available Date Apr 23, 2024
Journal BMC Ecology and Evolution
Print ISSN 2730-7182
Electronic ISSN 2730-7182
Publisher BioMed Central
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 24
Issue 1
Article Number 24
DOI https://doi.org/10.1186/s12862-024-02214-5
Keywords Haplochromine cichlids; Evolutionary biology; Morphometrics; CT scanning; Disruptive selection; Sensory ecology
Public URL https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4568454

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Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2024.
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.




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