PLASTICITYSPECIATION

Phenotypic plasticity and speciation in cichlids

Coordinatore	UNIVERSITAT KONSTANZ    more  Organization address address: UNIVERSITATSSTRASSE 10 city: KONSTANZ postcode: 78457 contact info Titolo: Prof. Nome: Axel Cognome: Meyer Email: send email Telefono: 497532000000 Fax: 497532000000
Nazionalità Coordinatore	Germany [DE]
Totale costo	161˙968 €
EC contributo	161˙968 €
Programma	FP7-PEOPLE Specific programme "People" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013)
Code Call	FP7-PEOPLE-2012-IEF
Funding Scheme	MC-IEF
Anno di inizio	2013
Periodo (anno-mese-giorno)	2013-03-01   -   2015-02-28

 Partecipanti

#	participant	country	role	EC contrib. [€]
1	UNIVERSITAT KONSTANZ  Organization address address: UNIVERSITATSSTRASSE 10 city: KONSTANZ postcode: 78457 contact info Titolo: Prof. Nome: Axel Cognome: Meyer Email: send email Telefono: 497532000000 Fax: 497532000000	DE (KONSTANZ)	coordinator	161˙968.80

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'Phenotypic plasticity is considered a catalyst for speciation through two alternative mechanisms: the Baldwin effect and genetic assimilation. Midas cichlids – Nicaraguan freshwater fishes where multiple species diverged in sympatry in crater lakes after colonization from larger source lakes – are the ideal model to study the influence of plasticity in speciation. The presence of trade-offs in the morphology of Midas cichlids’ pharyngeal jaw – a trophic structure used to crush hard food items which plastically modifies its size and shape when subjected to hard food – allows to generate specific hypotheses. In fact, according to theoretical models, in presence of trade-offs genetic assimilation is more likely than the Baldwin effect. I will use common garden experiments involving two Midas species from Lake Apoyo and the species from Lake Nicaragua (which acted as a source for Lake Apoyo) subjecting the fish to hard and soft diet treatments, that are nutritionally identically and only differ in their hardness. I will then measure the levels and directions of plastic response in each species/treatment using advanced geometric morphometric analyses and I will assess their transcriptional correlates using a combination of Illumina RNA next generation sequencing and RT-qPCR. I will, therefore, be able to test the following three hypotheses: 1. that the derived populations from Lake Apoyo show lower levels of plasticity than source species (as expected as a consequence of genetic assimilation); 2. that the plastic response in the source population produces the same phenotypes found in natural populations of the derived species (as expected according to the “flexible stem hypothesis”); 3. comparing the results with published data from African cichlids, that the genes differentially expressed in pharyngeal jaw plastic response are the same in both closely and distantly related cichlid lineages (thus suggesting a conserved molecular basis for pharyngeal jaw plasticity).'