Strong and consistent natural selection associated with armour reduction in sticklebacks

Measuring the strength of natural selection is tremendously important in evolutionary biology, but remains a challenging task. In this work, we analyse the characteristics of selection for a morphological change (lateral‐plate reduction) in the threespine stickleback Gasterosteus aculeatus. Adaptati...

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Published in:Molecular ecology 2011-06, Vol.20 (12), p.2483-2493
Main Authors: LE ROUZIC, ARNAUD, ØSTBYE, KJARTAN, KLEPAKER, TOM O., HANSEN, THOMAS F., BERNATCHEZ, LOUIS, SCHLUTER, DOLPH, VØLLESTAD, L. ASBJØRN
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adaptation, Biological
adaptive evolution
Alaska
Animals
Biological Evolution
Confidence Intervals
Ectodysplasin-A
Ectodysplasins - genetics
Evolutionary biology
Fish
Fresh Water
Freshwater
Gasterosteus aculeatus
Genetic Fitness
Genetic Markers
Genetics, Population
Genotype
Likelihood Functions
maximum likelihood
Models, Genetic
Norway
Phenotype
Population Dynamics
population genetics
Seawater
selection response
Selection, Genetic
Smegmamorpha - anatomy & histology
Smegmamorpha - genetics
Time Factors
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Summary:Measuring the strength of natural selection is tremendously important in evolutionary biology, but remains a challenging task. In this work, we analyse the characteristics of selection for a morphological change (lateral‐plate reduction) in the threespine stickleback Gasterosteus aculeatus. Adaptation to freshwater, leading with the reduction or loss of the bony lateral armour, has occurred in parallel on numerous occasions in this species. Completely‐plated and low‐plated sticklebacks were introduced into a pond, and the phenotypic changes were tracked for 20 years. Fish from the last generation were genotyped for the Ectodysplasin‐A (Eda) locus, the major gene involved in armour development. We found a strong fitness advantage for the freshwater‐type fish (on average, 20% fitness advantage for the freshwater morph, and 92% for the freshwater genotype). The trend is best explained by assuming that this fitness advantage is maximum at the beginning of the invasion and decreases with time. Such fitness differences provide a quantifiable example of rapid selection‐driven phenotypic evolution associated with environmental change in a natural population.
ISSN:0962-1083
1365-294X
DOI:10.1111/j.1365-294X.2011.05071.x