The genomic substrate for adaptive radiation in African cichlid fish

Cichlid fishes are famous for large, diverse and replicated adaptive radiations in the Great Lakes of East Africa. To understand the molecular mechanisms underlying cichlid phenotypic diversity, we sequenced the genomes and transcriptomes of five lineages of African cichlids: the Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus), an ancestral lineage with low diversity; and four members of the East African lineage: Neolamprologus brichardi/pulcher (older radiation, Lake Tanganyika), Metriaclima zebra (recent radiation, Lake Malawi), Pundamilia nyererei (very recent radiation, Lake Victoria), and Astatotilapia burtoni (riverine species around Lake Tanganyika). We found an excess of gene duplications in the East African…

• NS
  National Science Foundation
• WT
  Wellcome Trust
• BI
  Broad Institute
• UO
  University of Oxford
• DF
  Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
• SN
  Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung

  Awards: 31003A, 31003A-118293, 118293, 144046, 142774
• CO
  College of Computing
• BA
  Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council

  Awards: BBS/E/T/000PR5885, BBS/E/T/000PR6193
• BR
  Biomedical Research Council
• NH
  National Human Genome Research Institute