Y-linked Mendelian inheritance of giant and dwarf male morphs in shell-brooding cichlids

Ocana S, Meidl P, Bonfils D, Taborsky M. 2014. Y-linked Mendelian inheritance of giant and dwarf male morphs in shell-brooding cichlids. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B Biological Sciences. 281(1794), 20140253.

Download (ext.)

Journal Article | Published | English

Scopus indexed
Author
Ocana, Sabine; Meidl, PatrickISTA; Bonfils, Danielle; Taborsky, Michael
Department
Abstract
Behavioural variation among conspecifics is typically contingent on individual state or environmental conditions. Sex-specific genetic polymorphisms are enigmatic because they lack conditionality, and genes causing adaptive trait variation in one sex may reduce Darwinian fitness in the other. One way to avoid such genetic antagonism is to control sex-specific traits by inheritance via sex chromosomes. Here, controlled laboratory crossings suggest that in snail-brooding cichlid fish a single locus, two-allele polymorphism located on a sex-linked chromosome of heterogametic males generates an extreme reproductive dimorphism. Both natural and sexual selection are responsible for exceptionally large body size of bourgeois males, creating a niche for a miniature male phenotype to evolve. This extreme intrasexual dimorphism results from selection on opposite size thresholds caused by a single ecological factor, empty snail shells used as breeding substrate. Paternity analyses reveal that in the field parasitic dwarf males sire the majority of offspring in direct sperm competition with large nest owners exceeding their size more than 40 times. Apparently, use of empty snail shells as breeding substrate and single locus sex-linked inheritance of growth are the major ecological and genetic mechanisms responsible for the extreme intrasexual diversity observed in Lamprologus callipterus.
Publishing Year
Date Published
2014-11-07
Journal Title
Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B Biological Sciences
Publisher
The Royal Society
Acknowledgement
This research was supported by grants of the Swiss National Science Foundation to M.T. We thank Tetsu Sato for providing field samples, Olivier Goffinet for field assistance, Dolores Schütz for vital help in the field and with the manuscript, David Lank, Barbara Taborsky, Suzanne Alonzo and two anonymous referees for comments on earlier manuscript versions, and the Fisheries Department, Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock of Zambia, for permission and support.
Volume
281
Issue
1794
Article Number
20140253
IST-REx-ID

Cite this

Ocana S, Meidl P, Bonfils D, Taborsky M. Y-linked Mendelian inheritance of giant and dwarf male morphs in shell-brooding cichlids. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B Biological Sciences. 2014;281(1794). doi:10.1098/rspb.2014.0253
Ocana, S., Meidl, P., Bonfils, D., & Taborsky, M. (2014). Y-linked Mendelian inheritance of giant and dwarf male morphs in shell-brooding cichlids. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B Biological Sciences. The Royal Society. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2014.0253
Ocana, Sabine, Patrick Meidl, Danielle Bonfils, and Michael Taborsky. “Y-Linked Mendelian Inheritance of Giant and Dwarf Male Morphs in Shell-Brooding Cichlids.” Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B Biological Sciences. The Royal Society, 2014. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2014.0253.
S. Ocana, P. Meidl, D. Bonfils, and M. Taborsky, “Y-linked Mendelian inheritance of giant and dwarf male morphs in shell-brooding cichlids,” Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B Biological Sciences, vol. 281, no. 1794. The Royal Society, 2014.
Ocana S, Meidl P, Bonfils D, Taborsky M. 2014. Y-linked Mendelian inheritance of giant and dwarf male morphs in shell-brooding cichlids. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B Biological Sciences. 281(1794), 20140253.
Ocana, Sabine, et al. “Y-Linked Mendelian Inheritance of Giant and Dwarf Male Morphs in Shell-Brooding Cichlids.” Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B Biological Sciences, vol. 281, no. 1794, 20140253, The Royal Society, 2014, doi:10.1098/rspb.2014.0253.
All files available under the following license(s):
Copyright Statement:
This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. [...]

Link(s) to Main File(s)
Access Level
OA Open Access

Export

Marked Publications

Open Data ISTA Research Explorer

Sources

PMID: 25232141
PubMed | Europe PMC

Search this title in

Google Scholar