Abstract
Patterns of sleep vary widely among species [1-4], but the functional and evolutionary principles responsible for this diversity remain unknown. The characin fish, Astyanax mexicanus, has eyed surface and numerous blind cave populations [5]. The cave populations are largely independent in their origins, and the species is ideal for studying the genetic bases of convergent evolution [5-7]. Here we show that this system is also uniquely valuable for the investigation of variability in patterns of sleep. We find that a clearly defined change in ecological conditions, from surface to cave, is correlated with a dramatic reduction in sleep in three independently derived cave populations of A. mexicanus. Analyses of surface × cave hybrids show that the alleles for reduced sleep in the Pachón and Tinaja cave populations are dominant in effect to the surface alleles. Genetic analysis of hybrids between surface and Pachón cavefish suggests that only a small number of loci with dominant effects are involved. Our results demonstrate that sleep is an evolutionarily labile phenotype, highly responsive to changes in ecological conditions. To our knowledge, this is the first example of a single species with a convergence on sleep loss exhibited by several independently evolved populations correlated with population-specific ecologies.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 671-676 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Journal | Current Biology |
| Volume | 21 |
| Issue number | 8 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Apr 26 2011 |
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ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Agricultural and Biological Sciences(all)
- Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology(all)
Cite this
Evolutionary convergence on sleep loss in cavefish populations. / Duboué, Erik R.; Keene, Alex C.; Borowsky, Richard L.
In: Current Biology, Vol. 21, No. 8, 26.04.2011, p. 671-676.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Evolutionary convergence on sleep loss in cavefish populations
AU - Duboué, Erik R.
AU - Keene, Alex C.
AU - Borowsky, Richard L.
PY - 2011/4/26
Y1 - 2011/4/26
N2 - Patterns of sleep vary widely among species [1-4], but the functional and evolutionary principles responsible for this diversity remain unknown. The characin fish, Astyanax mexicanus, has eyed surface and numerous blind cave populations [5]. The cave populations are largely independent in their origins, and the species is ideal for studying the genetic bases of convergent evolution [5-7]. Here we show that this system is also uniquely valuable for the investigation of variability in patterns of sleep. We find that a clearly defined change in ecological conditions, from surface to cave, is correlated with a dramatic reduction in sleep in three independently derived cave populations of A. mexicanus. Analyses of surface × cave hybrids show that the alleles for reduced sleep in the Pachón and Tinaja cave populations are dominant in effect to the surface alleles. Genetic analysis of hybrids between surface and Pachón cavefish suggests that only a small number of loci with dominant effects are involved. Our results demonstrate that sleep is an evolutionarily labile phenotype, highly responsive to changes in ecological conditions. To our knowledge, this is the first example of a single species with a convergence on sleep loss exhibited by several independently evolved populations correlated with population-specific ecologies.
AB - Patterns of sleep vary widely among species [1-4], but the functional and evolutionary principles responsible for this diversity remain unknown. The characin fish, Astyanax mexicanus, has eyed surface and numerous blind cave populations [5]. The cave populations are largely independent in their origins, and the species is ideal for studying the genetic bases of convergent evolution [5-7]. Here we show that this system is also uniquely valuable for the investigation of variability in patterns of sleep. We find that a clearly defined change in ecological conditions, from surface to cave, is correlated with a dramatic reduction in sleep in three independently derived cave populations of A. mexicanus. Analyses of surface × cave hybrids show that the alleles for reduced sleep in the Pachón and Tinaja cave populations are dominant in effect to the surface alleles. Genetic analysis of hybrids between surface and Pachón cavefish suggests that only a small number of loci with dominant effects are involved. Our results demonstrate that sleep is an evolutionarily labile phenotype, highly responsive to changes in ecological conditions. To our knowledge, this is the first example of a single species with a convergence on sleep loss exhibited by several independently evolved populations correlated with population-specific ecologies.
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UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=79955478108&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.cub.2011.03.020
DO - 10.1016/j.cub.2011.03.020
M3 - Article
C2 - 21474315
AN - SCOPUS:79955478108
VL - 21
SP - 671
EP - 676
JO - Current Biology
JF - Current Biology
SN - 0960-9822
IS - 8
ER -