EVIDENCE FOR DEVELOPMENTAL LINKAGE OF PIGMENT PATTERNS WITH BODY SIZE AND SHAPE IN DANIOS (TELEOSTEI: CYPRINIDAE)

Modeling parr-mark pattern formation during the early development of Amago trout

This paper studies the formation of the large dark patterns, known as parr marks, that form on the Amago trout as it grows from the early larval stages to adulthood. The Amago trout, known as Oncorhynchus masou ishikawa, exhibits stripes during the early stages of development that in turn evolve (through reorientation and peak insertion) to form zigzag spot patterns as the fish grows to adulthood. By considering a standard representation of the Turing model for biological self-organization via interacting and diffusing morphogens, we illustrate that a diffusively driven instability can generate transient patterns consistent with those experimentally observed during the process of parr-mark formation in the early development of the Amago trout. Surface evolution is modeled through an experimentally driven growth function. Our studies conclude that the surface evolution profile, the surface geometry, and the curvature are key factors that play a pivotal role in reaction-diffusion systems in a study motivated by observations of Amago trout parr-mark pattern formation.

Quantitative genetics of pigmentation development in 2 populations of the common garter snake, Thamnophis sirtalis

The evolutionary importance of ontogenetic change has been noted since Darwin. However, most analyses of phenotypic evolution focus on single landmark ages. Here, we present an inheritance study that quantifies genetic variation in pigmentation across early-age (i.e., birth to 180 days) development in 2 populations of the common garter snake, Thamnophis sirtalis. The populations are phenotypically distinct and geographically isolated (Manitoba, CA and Northern California, USA). There were highly significant differences between populations for the developmental trajectory of mean pigmentation, with the Manitoba population exhibiting a mean pigmentation level that increased across ontogeny, whereas the California population exhibited mean pigmentation that was invariant across ontogeny. Subsequent quantitative genetic analyses revealed heritable variation at all ages in Manitoba but low levels of phenotypic and genetic variation in California at all ages. A quantitative genetic decomposition of the longitudinal genetic variance-covariance matrix for the age-specific pigmentation phenotypes in the Manitoba population revealed 2 primary orthogonal axes that explained most ( approximately 100%) of the pigmentation variation across ontogeny. The primary axis, explaining 93% of the genetic variation, is an axis of genetic variation whose principal value loadings change from positive to negative across development, suggesting that the most rapid evolutionary response to selection on pigmentation variation will occur in the direction characterized by a tradeoff in early-age versus late-age pigmentation phenotypes. Pigmentation is known to be ecologically important and subject to rapid evolution under selection. Our study shows that significant differences exist between these 2 populations for their capacity to respond to selection on pigmentation which is not only influenced by the population of origin but also by the developmental process. We suggest that developmental timing may be a potential explanatory mechanism for the difference between the populations.

Evolutionary basis of parallelism in North American scincid lizards

This study uses a phylogenetic framework to explore the causes of parallelism in two North American scincid lizard assemblages: the skiltonianus and fasciatus species groups of the genus Plestiodon. Each group consists of several closely related species with conserved neonate morphology; features that distinguish species become accentuated during ontogeny, and these differences often resemble different endpoints along a developmental continuum. This continuum is believed to be an expression of the ancestral ontogeny, and has led to the hypothesis that evolutionary change in development has generated much of the observed morphological diversity. However, progress on understanding these mechanisms is limited by a lack of well-supported phylogenetic data for the fasciatus group, and for Plestiodon in general. Recent phylogenetic studies on the skiltonianus group have revealed previously undetected cases of parallelism, and raise the possibility that similar cases have yet to be discovered in the fasciatus group. Here, I estimate a phylogeny to test the monophyly of the fasciatus group and infer its relationship with other North American Plestiodon using 2537 bp from six mtDNA genes. I use the phylogeny to reconstruct the mode (graduated vs. punctuated) and direction of body size evolution, to map the evolution of two predominant color morphs, and to test whether size and color pattern evolve concertedly. The results show that the morphotypes of the traditional fasciatus group constitute good species, but that the species group is rendered paraphyletic by several geographically overlapping species that deviate from the fasciatus-like ontogeny. Body size evolution has occurred gradually and bi-directionally, and shifts to large body size have been consistently associated with the loss of the striped color pattern during ontogeny. I show that parallelism, a lack of rigorous phylogenetic analysis, and a reliance on shared ontogenetic features for predicting phylogenetic relatedness, has misled the traditional systematics of these lizards, but that general ideas concerning the role of development in their morphological evolution remain supported. I close by proposing that the processes influencing repeated phyletic patterns in the skiltonianus and fasciatus groups represent adherence to an ancestral ground state, and discuss the importance of using phylogenies for the initial characterization of evolutionary changes in development.