Heritability of DNA methylation in threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus)

Genome-wide DNA methylation patterns in wild samples of two morphotypes of threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus).

Epigenetic marks such as DNA methylation play important biological roles in gene expression regulation and cellular differentiation during development. To examine whether DNA methylation patterns are potentially associated with naturally occurring phenotypic differences, we examined genome-wide DNA methylation within Gasterosteus aculeatus, using reduced representation bisulfite sequencing. Fir...

Salinity-induced phenotypic plasticity in lateral bony plate number of the threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus)

Parallel evolution of Pitx1 underlies pelvic reduction in Scottish threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus).

Little is known about the genetic and molecular mechanisms that underlie adaptive phenotypic variation in natural populations or whether similar genetic and molecular mechanisms are utilized when similar adaptive phenotypes arise in independent populations. The threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) is a good model system to investigate these questions because these fish display a larg...

Phenotypic plasticity of the threespine stickleback Gasterosteus aculeatus telencephalon in response to experi- ence in captivity

Threespine stickleback were used to examine phenotypic plasticity of telencephala in relation to inferred ecology. Fish from derived, allopatric, freshwater populations were sampled from three shallow, structurally complex lakes with benthic-foraging stickleback (benthics) and from three deep, structurally simple lakes with planktivores (limnetics). The telencephalon of specimens preserved imme...

Metabolic depression and the evolution of hypoxia tolerance in threespine stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus.

Anthropogenic increases in global temperature and agricultural runoff are increasing the prevalence of aquatic hypoxia throughout the world. We investigated the potential for a relatively rapid evolution of hypoxia tolerance using two isolated (for less than 11 000 years) populations of threespine stickleback: one from a lake that experiences long-term hypoxia (Alta Lake, British Columbia) and ...