Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Site Tools

  • AAAS
  • Subscribe
  • Feedback

Site Search

Search Advanced

Originally published in Science Express on 28 August 2008
Science 10 October 2008:
Vol. 322. no. 5899, pp. 255 - 257
DOI: 10.1126/science.1159978
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

Natural Selection on a Major Armor Gene in Threespine Stickleback

Rowan D. H. Barrett,* Sean M. Rogers, Dolph Schluter

Experimental estimates of the effects of selection on genes determining adaptive traits add to our understanding of the mechanisms of evolution. We measured selection on genotypes of the Ectodysplasin locus, which underlie differences in lateral plates in threespine stickleback fish. A derived allele (low) causing reduced plate number has been fixed repeatedly after marine stickleback colonized freshwater from the sea, where the ancestral allele (complete) predominates. We transplanted marine sticklebacks carrying both alleles to freshwater ponds and tracked genotype frequencies over a generation. The low allele increased in frequency once lateral plates developed, most likely via a growth advantage. Opposing selection at the larval stage and changing dominance for fitness throughout life suggest either that the gene affects additional traits undergoing selection or that linked loci also are affecting fitness.

Zoology Department and Biodiversity Research Centre, University of British Columbia, 6270 University Boulevard, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: rbarrett{at}zoology.ubc.ca

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
In the Light of Evolution III: Two Centuries of Darwin Sackler Colloquium: Genetics and ecological speciation.
D. Schluter and G. L. Conte (2009)
PNAS 106, 9955-9962
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Evolution in plant populations as a driver of ecological changes in arthropod communities.
M. T.J. Johnson, M. Vellend, and J. R. Stinchcombe (2009)
Phil Trans R Soc B 364, 1593-1605
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Genomic Patterns of Adaptive Divergence between Chromosomally Differentiated Sunflower Species.
J. L. Strasburg, C. Scotti-Saintagne, I. Scotti, Z. Lai, and L. H. Rieseberg (2009)
Mol. Biol. Evol. 26, 1341-1355
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)