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PHENOTYPE–ENVIRONMENT ASSOCIATION OF THE OXYGEN TRANSPORT SYSTEM IN TRIMORPHIC EUROPEAN WHITEFISH ( Coregonus lavaretus ) POPULATIONS
Author(s) -
Evans Melissa L.,
Præbel Kim,
Peruzzi Stefano,
Amundsen PerArne,
Bernatchez Louis
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
evolution
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.84
H-Index - 199
eISSN - 1558-5646
pISSN - 0014-3820
DOI - 10.1111/evo.12442
Subject(s) - biology , coregonus lavaretus , profundal zone , pelagic zone , coregonus , ecology , littoral zone , evolutionary biology , zoology , fishery , fish <actinopterygii>
Replicated adaptive radiation events, typified by phenotypic divergence across resource axes, provide important insight into the eco‐evolutionary dynamics that lead to the formation of new species. Here, we show that in trimorphic adaptive radiations of European whitefish ( Coregonus lavaretus ), divergence of the oxygen transport system has occurred across the pelagic/littoral (shallow)—profundal (deep) resource axis, and at multiple biological scales. Profundal whitefish exhibited significantly larger red blood cells (RBCs), a greater proportion of cathodic hemoglobin protein components, and higher hemoglobin transcript abundance in kidney compared to littoral and pelagic morphs. Hemoglobin transcript abundance in brain and gill, but not kidney, and anodic hemoglobin protein component diversity in blood were also linked to variation at an intronic single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP). As the whitefish morphs differ in population genetic structure at this SNP, hemoglobin transcript and protein divergence between profundal and pelagic/littoral morphs is likely being driven by genetic divergence. Our findings, along with our previous work on lake whitefish, highlight the importance of the oxygen transport system to the postglacial colonization of novel lacustrine environments by whitefish throughout the northern hemisphere.