Pigment pattern morphospace of Danio fishes: evolutionary diversification and mutational effects.

ABSTRACT: Molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying variation in adult form remain largely unknown. Adult pigment patterns of fishes in the genus Danio, which includes zebrafish, Danio rerio, consist of horizontal stripes, vertical bars, spots and uniform patterns, and provide an outstanding opportunity to identify causes of species level variation in a neural crest derived trait. Understanding pigment pattern variation requires quantitative approaches to assess phenotypes, yet such methods have been mostly lacking for pigment patterns. We introduce metrics derived from information theory that describe patterns and pattern variation in Danio fishes. We find that these metrics used singly and in multivariate combinations are suitable for distinguishing general pattern types, and can reveal even su

SUBMITTER: McCluskey BM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8487636 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature