Sequencing of five African fishes reveals diverse molecular mechanisms underlying evolution
Wednesday, September 3, 2014 - 12:00
in Biology & Nature
In an effort to understand the molecular basis of adaptation in vertebrates, researchers sequenced the genomes and transcriptomes of five species of African cichlid fishes. A research team led by scientists at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard uncovered a variety of features in the cichlid genomes that enabled the fishes to thrive in new habitats and ecological niches within the Great Lakes of East Africa. In addition to helping explain the complex genomic mechanisms that give rise to incredible diversity among cichlid fishes, the findings from these "natural mutants" shed new light on the molecular process of evolution in all vertebrate species.