ArticleBMC biology2017
Dorsal spine evolution in threespine sticklebacks via a splicing change in MSX2A.
Article in BMC biology, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 34 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
34 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 54 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- Alternative splicing contributes to plasticity and regulatory divergence in locally adapted house mice from the Americas.Molecular biology and evolution · 2026Article
- Ectodysplasin overexpression reveals spatiotemporally dynamic tooth formation competency in stickleback and zebrafish.Development (Cambridge, England) · 2025Article
- Molecular mechanisms of Eda-mediated adaptation to freshwater in threespine stickleback.Molecular ecology · 2025Article
- A Splicing Mutation in mitfa is Involved in the Depigmentation of Cavefish Triplophysa rosa.Molecular biology and evolution · 2025Article
- The Role of Alternative Splicing in Marine-Freshwater Divergence in Threespine Stickleback.Genome biology and evolution · 2025Article
- The interplay between epigenomic and transcriptomic variation during ecotype divergence in stickleback.BMC biology · 2025Article
- Genetic mechanisms of axial patterning inEvolution letters · 2024Article
- The roles of different gene expression regulators in acoustic variation in the intermediate horseshoe bat revealed by long-read and short-read RNA sequencing data.Current zoology · 2024Article
- The molecular basis of phenotypic evolution: beyond the usual suspects.Trends in genetics : TIG · 2024Review
- Inferring the evolution of reproductive isolation in a lineage of fossil threespine stickleback,Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Gene expression and alternative splicing contribute to adaptive divergence of ecotypes.Heredity · 2024Article
- Modulation of tooth regeneration through opposing responses to Wnt and BMP signals in teleosts.Development (Cambridge, England) · 2023Article
- Comprehensive isoform-level analysis reveals the contribution of alternative isoforms to venom evolution and repertoire diversity.Genome research · 2023Article
- Whole-genome Comparisons Identify Repeated Regulatory Changes Underlying Convergent Appendage Evolution in Diverse Fish Lineages.Molecular biology and evolution · 2023Article
- Evolution of Spatial and Temporal cis-Regulatory Divergence in Sticklebacks.Molecular biology and evolution · 2023Article
- Prevalent Introgression Underlies Convergent Evolution in the Diversification of Pungitius Sticklebacks.Molecular biology and evolution · 2023Article
- Whole-genome comparisons identify repeated regulatory changes underlying convergent appendage evolution in diverse fish lineages.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2023Article
- Alternative splicing as a source of phenotypic diversity.Nature reviews. Genetics · 2022Review
- Evolution of stickleback spines through independent cis-regulatory changes at HOXDB.Nature ecology & evolution · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundDorsal spine reduction in threespine sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus) is a classic example of recurrent skeletal evolution in nature. Sticklebacks in marine environments typically have long spines that form part of their skeletal armor. Many derived freshwater populations have evolved shorter spines. Changes in spine length are controlled in part by a quantitative trait locus (QTL) previously mapped to chromosome 4, but the causative gene and mutations underlying the repeated evolution of this interesting skeletal trait have not been identified.
resultsRefined mapping of the spine length QTL shows that it lies near the MSX2A transcription factor gene. MSX2A is expressed in developing spines. In F1 marine × freshwater fish, the marine allele is preferentially expressed. Differences in expression can be attributed to splicing regulation. Due to the use of an alternative 5
conclusionsMSX2A is a major gene underlying dorsal spine reduction in freshwater sticklebacks. The gene is linked to a separate gene controlling bony plate loss, helping explain the concerted effects of chromosome 4 on multiple armor-reduction traits. The nature of the molecular changes provides an interesting example of morphological evolution occurring not through a simple amino acid change, nor through a change only in gene expression levels, but through a change in the ratio of splice products encoding both normal and truncated proteins.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.