Behavioral and genomic aspects of cichlid speciation (GENBAS).

Since Darwins' The Origin of Species there has been a continued interest to gain insight in the speciation process. Initially, theories on speciation were mostly narrative and focussed on the geographic modes of speciation, while more recent work investigated the importance of sexual selection or whether speciation rates can be triggered by environmental changes. All these questions have been addressed in the cichlid fishes from the Great African lakes that are often cited as the ultimate animal models to investigate adaptive radiation and speciation. Therefore, our proposals two main objectives are (1) to characterize the genomic differentiation that drives the speciation process, and (2) to verify whether/and to what extent the same genomic changes are involved in to maintain the integrity of the gene pools of the resulting sister species. We address this question through a dual approach: one that compares the genome wide differentiation within and between sister species, and one that explores the genetic basis of the behavioural aspects (display and acoustic signalling during courtship) that allow female fishes to differentiate between con-specific and hetero-specific males.

Keywords:cichlid speciation

Disciplines:Genetics, Systems biology, Molecular and cell biology