Ecological diversification of sea catfishes is accompanied by genome-wide signatures of positive selection

Habitat transitions have shaped the evolutionary trajectory of many clades. Sea catfishes (Ariidae) have repeatedly undergone ecological transitions, including colonizing freshwaters from marine environments, leading to an adaptive radiation in Australia and New Guinea alongside non-radiating freshwater lineages elsewhere. Here, we generate and analyze one long-read reference genome and 66 short-read whole genome assemblies, in conjunction with genomic data for 54 additional species. We investigate how three major ecological transitions have shaped genomic variation among ariids over their ~ 50 million-year evolutionary history. Our results show that relatively younger freshwater lineages exhibit a higher incidence of positive selection than their more ancient marine counterparts. They also display a larger disparity in body shapes, a trend that correlates with a heightened occurrence of positive selection on genes associated with body size and elongation. Although positive selection in the Australia and New Guinea radiation does not stand out compared to non-radiating lineages overall, selection across the prolactin gene family during the marine-to-freshwater transition suggests that strong osmoregulatory adaptations may have facilitated their colonization and radiation. Our findings underscore the significant role of selection in shaping the genome and organismal traits in response to habitat shifts across macroevolutionary scales.

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Publication Details

Journal
Nature Communications
Published
2024-11-20
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-54184-3
Citations
5
Primary Topic
Genetic diversity and population structure
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
2.75

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article

Ecological diversification of sea catfishes is accompanied by genome-wide signatures of positive selection

Jacquelyn Mountcastle, Brian I. O’Toole, Melissa Rincón-Sandoval, Aaron M. Davis et al.
5 citations
Nature Communications
Genetic diversity and population structure
2.75
article

Ecological diversification of sea catfishes is accompanied by genome-wide signatures of positive selection

Jacquelyn Mountcastle, Brian I. O’Toole, Melissa Rincón-Sandoval, Aaron M. Davis, Sergei L. Kosakovsky Pond, Dahiana Arcila, Devin D. Bloom, Giulio Formenti, Stephen D. Shank, Ricardo Betancur‐R, Erich D. Jarvis, Jennifer Balacco, Linelle Ann L. Abueg, Alan Tracey, Rishi De‐Kayne, Alfred Ko’ou, Stacy Pirro
article en
5 citations

Abstract

Habitat transitions have shaped the evolutionary trajectory of many clades. Sea catfishes (Ariidae) have repeatedly undergone ecological transitions, including colonizing freshwaters from marine environments, leading to an adaptive radiation in Australia and New Guinea alongside non-radiating freshwater lineages elsewhere. Here, we generate and analyze one long-read reference genome and 66 short-read whole genome assemblies, in conjunction with genomic data for 54 additional species. We investigate how three major ecological transitions have shaped genomic variation among ariids over their ~ 50 million-year evolutionary history. Our results show that relatively younger freshwater lineages exhibit a higher incidence of positive selection than their more ancient marine counterparts. They also display a larger disparity in body shapes, a trend that correlates with a heightened occurrence of positive selection on genes associated with body size and elongation. Although positive selection in the Australia and New Guinea radiation does not stand out compared to non-radiating lineages overall, selection across the prolactin gene family during the marine-to-freshwater transition suggests that strong osmoregulatory adaptations may have facilitated their colonization and radiation. Our findings underscore the significant role of selection in shaping the genome and organismal traits in response to habitat shifts across macroevolutionary scales.

Nature CommunicationsVol. 15(1)
Western Michigan University (US), Scripps Institution of Oceanography (US), University of Papua New Guinea (PG), University of California, Santa Cruz (US), University of California San Diego (US), Iridian Genomes (US), Rockefeller University (US), Temple University (US), James Cook University (AU), University of Oklahoma (US)
National Science Foundation, George Washington University, University of Oklahoma, Drexel University, National Institutes of Health, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, Supercomputing Center for Education and Research, University of Oklahoma, National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institute of General Medical Sciences, Division of Environmental Biology
Life below water
Openalex Percentile: Top 9%
Genetic diversity and population structure
2.75
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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