An exploration of the links between parasites, trophicecology, morphology, and immunogenetics in the LakeTanganyika cichlid radiation
Differences in habitat and diet betweenspecies are often associated with morphologicaldifferences. Habitat and trophic adaptation havetherefore been proposed as important drivers ofspeciation and adaptive radiation. Importantly, habitatand diet shifts likely impose changes in exposure todifferent pa...
| Autores: | , , , , , |
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2019 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) |
| Repositorio: | DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:digital.csic.es:10261/223792 |
| Acceso en línea: | http://hdl.handle.net/10261/223792 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Parasites Macroparasites Trophic ecology Morphology Immunogenetics |
| Sumario: | Differences in habitat and diet betweenspecies are often associated with morphologicaldifferences. Habitat and trophic adaptation havetherefore been proposed as important drivers ofspeciation and adaptive radiation. Importantly, habitatand diet shifts likely impose changes in exposure todifferent parasites and infection risk. As strongselective agents influencing survival and mate choice,parasites might play an important role in host diver-sification. We explore this possibility for the adaptiveradiation of Lake Tanganyika (LT) cichlids. We firstcompare metazoan macroparasites infection levelsbetween cichlid tribes. We then describe the cichlids’genetic diversity at the major histocompatibilitycomplex (MHC), which plays a key role in vertebrateimmunity. Finally, we evaluate to what extent trophicecology and morphology explain variation in infectionlevels and MHC, accounting for phylogenetic rela-tionships. We show that different cichlid tribes in LTfeature partially non-overlapping parasite communi-ties and partially non-overlapping MHC diversity.While morphology explained 15% of the variation inmean parasite abundance, trophic ecology accountedfor 16% and 22% of the MHC variation at thenucleotide and at the amino acid level, respectively.Parasitism and immunogenetic adaptation may thusadd additional dimensions to the LT cichlid radiation. |
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