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Molecular mechanisms underlying nuchal hump formation in dolphin cichlid, Cyrtocara moorii.

ABSTRACT: East African cichlid fishes represent a model to tackle adaptive changes and their connection to rapid speciation and ecological distinction. In comparison to bony craniofacial tissues, adaptive morphogenesis of soft tissues has been rarely addressed, particularly at the molecular level. The nuchal hump in cichlids fishes is one such soft-tissue and exaggerated trait that is hypothesized to play an innovative role in the adaptive radiation of cichlids fishes. It has also evolved in parallel across lakes in East Africa and Central America. Using gene expression profiling, we identified and validated a set of genes involved in nuchal hump formation in the Lake Malawi dolphin cichlid, Cyrtocara moorii. In particular, we found genes differentially expressed in the nuchal hump, which are involved in controlling cell proliferation (btg3, fosl1a and pdgfrb), cell growth (dlk1), craniofacial morphogenesis (dlx5a, mycn and tcf12), as well as regulators of growth-related signals (dpt, pappa and socs2). This is the first study to identify the set of genes associated with nuchal hump formation in cichlids. Given that the hump is a trait that evolved repeatedly in several African and American cichlid lineages, it would be interesting to see if the molecular pathways and genes triggering hump formation follow a common genetic track or if the trait evolved in parallel, with distinct mechanisms, in other cichlid adaptive radiations and even in other teleost fishes.

SUBMITTER: Lecaudey LA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6937230 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Molecular mechanisms underlying nuchal hump formation in dolphin cichlid, Cyrtocara moorii.

Lecaudey Laurène Alicia LA Sturmbauer Christian C Singh Pooja P Ahi Ehsan Pashay EP

Scientific reports 20191230 1

East African cichlid fishes represent a model to tackle adaptive changes and their connection to rapid speciation and ecological distinction. In comparison to bony craniofacial tissues, adaptive morphogenesis of soft tissues has been rarely addressed, particularly at the molecular level. The nuchal hump in cichlids fishes is one such soft-tissue and exaggerated trait that is hypothesized to play an innovative role in the adaptive radiation of cichlids fishes. It has also evolved in parallel acro ...[more]

PMID: 31889116

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Project description:BackgroundThe oral and pharyngeal jaw of cichlid fishes are a classic example of evolutionary modularity as their functional decoupling boosted trophic diversification and contributed to the success of cichlid adaptive radiations. Most studies until now have focused on the functional, morphological, or genetic aspects of cichlid jaw modularity. Here we extend this concept to include transcriptional modularity by sequencing whole transcriptomes of the two jaws and comparing their gene coexpression networks.ResultsWe show that transcriptional decoupling of gene expression underlies the functional decoupling of cichlid oral and pharyngeal jaw apparatus and the two units are evolving independently in recently diverged cichlid species from Lake Tanganyika. Oral and pharyngeal jaw coexpression networks reflect the common origin of the jaw regulatory program as there is high preservation of gene coexpression modules between the two sets of jaws. However, there is substantial rewiring of genetic architecture within those modules. We define a global jaw coexpression network and highlight jaw-specific and species-specific modules within it. Furthermore, we annotate a comprehensive in silico gene regulatory network linking the Wnt and AHR signalling pathways to jaw morphogenesis and response to environmental cues, respectively. Components of these pathways are significantly differentially expressed between the oral and pharyngeal jaw apparatus.ConclusionThis study describes the concerted expression of many genes in cichlid oral and pharyngeal jaw apparatus at the onset of the independent life of cichlid fishes. Our findings suggest that - on the basis of an ancestral gill arch network-transcriptional rewiring may have driven the modular evolution of the oral and pharyngeal jaws, highlighting the evolutionary significance of gene network reuse. The gene coexpression and in silico regulatory networks presented here are intended as resource for future studies on the genetics of vertebrate jaw morphogenesis and trophic adaptation.

Project description:Fever implies a significant increase in corporal temperature that aids toward the resolution of infective processes such as viral disease. The majority of vertebrate species are not homeothermic therefore must rely upon the environment for temperature regulation. Here we show that in the zebrafish an artificial viral infection, induced by poly (I:C), induces a fever response regulated by the behavioral choice of temperature. We recorded 12 h of the diurnal cycle in zebrafish previously treated (first 12 hours dark cycle) with the pyrogen, poly (I:C) [10 μg⋅kg-1]. Fish, n=10, were held in a thermal gradient (36-180C) separated into 7 interconnected chambers. Presence or absence of individuals in each chamber was recorded each 15 minutes throughout the 12 hour period. After the experimental period we dissected whole brains for microarray analysis. In monitored zebrafish intraperitoneal treatment with poly (I:C) induced a febrile behaviour with significantly elevated temperature preference (T of about 32ºC) in stark contrast with the observed frequency for saline-injected fish (28ºC). Microarray analyses uncovered significant shifts in transcriptional activity that were highly directed in the poly (I:C)-treated fish housed in the thermal gradient. When compared to gene expression profiles from poly (I:C)-treated fish deprived of a thermal gradient we observed a less intense specific to the poly (I:C) challenge and interestingly observed a scattered generalised stress response. Our results highlight the influence of temperature preference in the development of the immune response in zebrafish. Fever induced gene expression in zebrafish brain was measured at 24 after intra peritoneal injection with 1mg*Kg-1 of Poly (I:C) in zebrafish. Four independent experiments were performed to explore the transcriptomic profile induced by animals injected by Poly (I:C) with/whithout thermal gradient, saline solution (PBS), or control using different animals for each experiment.

Dataset Information

Molecular mechanisms underlying nuchal hump formation in dolphin cichlid, Cyrtocara moorii.

Publications

Molecular mechanisms underlying nuchal hump formation in dolphin cichlid, Cyrtocara moorii.

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