Molecular genetic mechanisms of diversificatio of sexual dimorphisms in fishes

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24370039
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Partial Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Biodiversity/Systematics
• Research Institution: National Institute of Genetics
• Principal Investigator: KITANO Jun 国立遺伝学研究所, 新分野創造センター, 特任准教授 (80346105)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): YAMAHIRA Kazunori 琉球大学, 熱帯生物圏研究センター, 教授 (20322589)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 性的二型 / 変異 / 多様性 / 遺伝

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Because sexually dimorphic traits show great diversity and such divergence can contribute to speciation, it is one of the fundamental questions in ecology and evolution what are the genetic mechanisms underlying diversification of sexual dimorphism. Here, we first conducted QTL mapping of variation in a sexually dimorphic trait, anal fin length, between a southern population and a northern population of medaka. The majority of QTL were age-specific. Different fins share only few QTL. QTL detected in males have smaller effects in females. These results indicate that genetic constraints derived from genetic correlations between ages, sexes or traits are resolved to some extent. We next conducted QTL mapping using a marine population and a stream population of threespine stickleback. We identified several significant QTL. We also established genetic engineering methods of sticklebacks, both transgenesis and knockout.

Free Research Field

進化遺伝学