The cichlids' egg-spots: How evolution creates new characteristics
Thursday, October 9, 2014 - 09:30
in Biology & Nature
The evolution of new traits with novel functions has always posed a challenge to evolutionary biology. Studying the color markings of cichlid fish, Swiss scientists were now able to show what triggered these evolutionary innovations, namely: a mobile genetic element in the regulatory region of a color gene. Their results have been published in the latest issue of the renowned scientific journal Nature Communications.