ArticleMolecular ecology2018
The role of gene flow in rapid and repeated evolution of cave-related traits in Mexican tetra, Astyanax mexicanus.
Article in Molecular ecology, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 104 papers.
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104 citing papers in PubMed, 221 citations in OpenAlex.
- Phylogeography and Population Genetics of the Kentucky Endemic Cave Beetle GenusEcology and evolution · 2026Article
- Exploring Astyanax mexicanus as a model for unraveling genotype-environment interactions and metabolic adaptations.Lab animal · 2026Review
- A pangenome framework uncovers the role of deletions in repeated evolution of cave-derived traits.Genome research · 2026Article
- Similar Habitat Gradients Across Native and Invasive Ranges Elicit Divergent Evolutionary Responses.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- The resident effect dominates over previous winner/loser experience in surface fish of the Mexican tetra.Animal behaviour · 2026Article
- Disruption of carotenoid metabolism in cavefish via loss of beta-carotene oxygenase 2a.Current biology : CB · 2026Article
- Analysis of multi-trait evolution across independently evolved cavefish populations reveals shared and independent evolution of suites of traits.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2026Article
- Convergent evolution of albinism in cave animals is driven by shared mechanisms and adaptive advantages.Communications biology · 2026Article
- Enhanced multisensory integration in the olfactory bulb of the Mexican cavefish.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Cave evolution on repeat: reuse of the same genomic regions across lineages but not across traits inbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Water Parameters and Hydrodynamics in Rivers and Caves HostingEcology and evolution · 2026Article
- Aquifer-Mediated Speciation in Cave-Adapted Fishes.Integrative organismal biology (Oxford, England) · 2026Article
- CRISPR screening reveals genetic regulators associated with the evolution of eye degeneration.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Widespread loss of sleep in independently evolved populations of wild-caught cavefish.iScience · 2025Article
- Article
- Analysis of multi-trait evolution across independently evolved cavefish populations reveals shared and independent evolution of suites of cave-associated traits.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- The rx3 Gene Contributes to the Evolution of Eye Loss in the Cavefish Astyanax mexicanus.Evolution & development · 2025Article
- Unique genetic bases of repeated life-history divergence associated with high altitude adaptation inbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- A Splicing Mutation in mitfa is Involved in the Depigmentation of Cavefish Triplophysa rosa.Molecular biology and evolution · 2025Article
- Convergent Evolution in Amblyopsid Cavefishes and the Age of Eastern North American Subterranean Ecosystems.Molecular biology and evolution · 2025Article
44 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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19 authors at 14 institutions in 3 countries.
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Abstract
Understanding the molecular basis of repeatedly evolved phenotypes can yield key insights into the evolutionary process. Quantifying gene flow between populations is especially important in interpreting mechanisms of repeated phenotypic evolution, and genomic analyses have revealed that admixture occurs more frequently between diverging lineages than previously thought. In this study, we resequenced 47 whole genomes of the Mexican tetra from three cave populations, two surface populations and outgroup samples. We confirmed that cave populations are polyphyletic and two Astyanax mexicanus lineages are present in our data set. The two lineages likely diverged much more recently than previous mitochondrial estimates of 5-7 mya. Divergence of cave populations from their phylogenetically closest surface population likely occurred between ~161 and 191 k generations ago. The favoured demographic model for most population pairs accounts for divergence with secondary contact and heterogeneous gene flow across the genome, and we rigorously identified gene flow among all lineages sampled. Therefore, the evolution of cave-related traits occurred more rapidly than previously thought, and trogolomorphic traits are maintained despite gene flow with surface populations. The recency of these estimated divergence events suggests that selection may drive the evolution of cave-derived traits, as opposed to disuse and drift. Finally, we show that a key trogolomorphic phenotype QTL is enriched for genomic regions with low divergence between caves, suggesting that regions important for cave phenotypes may be transferred between caves via gene flow. Our study shows that gene flow must be considered in studies of independent, repeated trait evolution.
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