During avian egg production, oestrogen mediates marked increases in hepatic lipid production and changes in the diameter of assembled very-low density lipoprotein (VLDL). A nearly complete shift from generic VLDL ( approximately 70 nm in diameter), which transports lipids to peripheral tissues, to yolk-targeted VLDL (VLDLy) ( approximately 30 nm), which supplies the yolk with energy-rich lipid,...

The visual system in the colorful cichlid fishes from the African great lakes is believed to be important for their adaptive radiations. However, few studies have attempted to compare the visual system of radiating cichlid lineages with that of cichlids that have not undergone recent radiations. One such study published in this journal (Schott RK, Refvik SP, Hauser FE, López-Fernández H, Chang ...

The recurrent evolution of convergent forms is a widespread phenomenon in adaptive radiations (e.g., [1-9]). For example, similar ecotypes of anoles lizards have evolved on different islands of the Caribbean, benthic-limnetic species pairs of stickleback fish emerged repeatedly in postglacial lakes, equivalent sets of spider ecomorphs have arisen on Hawaiian islands, and a whole set of converge...

Determining the genetic bases of adaptations and their roles in speciation is a prominent issue in evolutionary biology. Cichlid fish species flocks are a prime example of recent rapid radiations, often associated with adaptive phenotypic divergence from a common ancestor within a short period of time. In several radiations of freshwater fishes, divergence in ecomorphological traits - including...

This paper reviews experiments done in the author's laboratory which led to the discovery of an Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) gene, BZLF1, whose product, ZEBRA, switches the virus from latency to the replicative phase of its life cycle. Recent experiments are summarized which explore the effects of EBV genome rearrangements and cell background on the expression of ZEBRA, and which investigate the vi...

Decoupling of the upper jaw bones--jaw kinesis--is a distinctive feature of the ray-finned fishes, but it is not clear how the innovation is related to the extraordinary diversity of feeding behaviours and feeding ecology in this group. We address this issue in a lineage of ray-finned fishes that is well known for its ecological and functional diversity--African rift lake cichlids. We sequenced...

East African cichlids exhibit an extraordinary level of morphological diversity. Key to their success has been a dramatic radiation in trophic biology, which has occurred rapidly and repeatedly in different lakes. In this report we take the first step in understanding the genetic basis of differences in cichlid oral jaw design. We estimate the effective number of genetic factors that control di...

The species flocks of cichlid fishes in the East African Great Lakes are the largest vertebrate adaptive radiations in the world and illustrious textbook examples of convergent evolution between independent species assemblages. Although recent studies suggest some degrees of genetic exchange between riverine taxa and the lake faunas, not a single cichlid species is known from Lakes Tanganyika, ...

A BAC library was constructed from Astatotilapia burtoni, a haplochromine cichlid that is found in Lake Tanganyika, East Africa, and its surrounding rivers. The library was generated from genomic DNA of blood cells and comprises 96,768 individual clones. Its median insert size is 150 kb and the coverage is expected to represent about 14 genome equivalents. The coverage evaluation was based on g...