Identification of Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL) for Vibration Attraction, Locomotor, and Sleep Behaviors in Astyanax mexicanus.
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2020
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Abstract
Rapid evolutionary shifts of multiple behavioral traits are frequently observed in the animal kingdom. Certain genetic mechanisms of these behavioral traits are thought to parallel psychiatric conditions. What puzzles geneticists and evolutionary biologists is that many behavioral traits are multigenic, which conflicts with rapid evolution. One possible explanation for this was shown through human genetics studies on Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), in which a high-burden of common risk variants induce many behavioral shifts in an individual. A core assumption is that many risk variants should be pleiotropic—one gene influences multiple behaviors. To test this assumption, we used Astyanax mexicanus, a teleost species constituting two morphs, a surface morph and a cave morph. The cave morph, evolved from its conspecific, exhibits many distinct behavioral phenotypes derived from cave-type mutations in the genome. In this thesis, F2 progeny generated from a pair of a cavefish and a surface fish (N=580), addressed the hypothesis that the evolution of a set of polygenic behaviors are influenced by pleiotropic loci. In Chapter 1, four diversified behaviors (vibration attraction, locomotor activity, sleep, and turning) were measured in cavefish (N=8), surface fish (N=8), and F2 hybrids (N=580). Behavioral correlation analyses among F2 hybrids indicated a tight link between night activity and night sleep, suggesting shared (pleiotropic) genetic factors among these behaviors. In Chapter 2, a genetic linkage map comprising of 27 linkage groups with 1,445 markers (40,268 cM) was generated through the genotyping-by-sequencing data of genomic DNA extracted from the F2 individuals in Chapter 1. On this linkage map, 16 quantitative trait loci (QTL) associated with vibration attraction, locomotor, and sleep behaviors were detected. Also, 11 of 16 QTLs were associated with two or more behavioral measurements, supporting the hypothesis that rapid multi-behavioral shifts are underlain by pleiotropic genetic factors. Interestingly, newly detected QTLs for daytime and nighttime sleep were distinct, suggesting separate pathways for regulating diurnality. In summary, shared genetic factors can provide the framework for studying rapid evolution and can inform potential target pathways in the study of psychiatric conditions.
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Evolution & development, Biology, Bioinformatics, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Fish Behavior, Linkage Map, QTL, Sleep and Locomotion, Vibration Attraction
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58 pages
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