ArticlePLoS genetics2021
Repeated evolution of circadian clock dysregulation in cavefish populations.
Article in PLoS genetics, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 43 papers.
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43 citing papers in PubMed, 73 citations in OpenAlex.
- Exploring Astyanax mexicanus as a model for unraveling genotype-environment interactions and metabolic adaptations.Lab animal · 2026Review
- Cave adaptation drives coordinated transcriptional remodeling across diverse cell types in the brain of a teleost fish.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Evolution of a central dopamine circuit underlies adaptation of a light-evoked sensorimotor response in the blind cavefish.Science advances · 2026Article
- A comparative brain atlas in the Mexican cavefish identifies widespread changes in cellular composition and gene expression.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
- Non-visual opsins and their role in circadian photoentrainment.Eye and vision (London, England) · 2026Review
- 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
- Comparative Embryology and Transcriptomics of Asellus infernus, an Isopod Crustacean From Sulfidic Groundwater.Evolution & development · 2025Article
- A Splicing Mutation in mitfa is Involved in the Depigmentation of Cavefish Triplophysa rosa.Molecular biology and evolution · 2025Article
- A repeatedly evolved mutation in Cryptochrome-1 of subterranean animals alters behavioral and molecular circadian rhythms.iScience · 2025Article
- Quantitative trait loci concentrate in specific regions of the Mexican cavefish genome and reveal key candidate genes for cave-associated evolution.The Journal of heredity · 2025Article
- Evolution of canonical circadian clock genes underlies unique sleep strategies of marine mammals for secondary aquatic adaptation.PLoS genetics · 2025Article
- Blue light restores functional circadian clocks in eyeless cave spiders.Science advances · 2025Article
- Population Genomics of Premature Termination Codons in Cavefish With Substantial Trait Loss.Molecular biology and evolution · 2025Article
- Postprandial Sleep in Short-Sleeping Mexican Cavefish.Journal of experimental zoology. Part A, Ecological and integrative physiology · 2024Article
- Functional and regulatory diversification of Period genes responsible for circadian rhythm in vertebrates.G3 (Bethesda, Md.) · 2024Article
- Evolution of a central dopamine circuit underlies adaptation of light-evoked sensorimotor response in the blind cavefish,bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Sporadic feeding regulates robust food entrainable circadian clocks in blind cavefish.iScience · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
14 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Circadian rhythms are nearly ubiquitous throughout nature, suggesting they are critical for survival in diverse environments. Organisms inhabiting largely arrhythmic environments, such as caves, offer a unique opportunity to study the evolution of circadian rhythms in response to changing ecological pressures. Populations of the Mexican tetra, Astyanax mexicanus, have repeatedly invaded caves from surface rivers, where individuals must contend with perpetual darkness, reduced food availability, and limited fluctuations in daily environmental cues. To investigate the molecular basis for evolved changes in circadian rhythms, we investigated rhythmic transcription across multiple independently-evolved cavefish populations. Our findings reveal that evolution in a cave environment has led to the repeated disruption of the endogenous biological clock, and its entrainment by light. The circadian transcriptome shows widespread reductions and losses of rhythmic transcription and changes to the timing of the activation/repression of core-transcriptional clock. In addition to dysregulation of the core clock, we find that rhythmic transcription of the melatonin regulator aanat2 and melatonin rhythms are disrupted in cavefish under darkness. Mutants of aanat2 and core clock gene rorca disrupt diurnal regulation of sleep in A. mexicanus, phenocopying circadian modulation of sleep and activity phenotypes of cave populations. Together, these findings reveal multiple independent mechanisms for loss of circadian rhythms in cavefish populations and provide a platform for studying how evolved changes in the biological clock can contribute to variation in sleep and circadian behavior.
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