Biology subjects

Marques, D. A.

Publications and source records attributed to Marques, D. A..

4 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2025

Highly modular genomic architecture underlies combinatorial mechanism of speciation and adaptive radiation

Hybridisation can fuel rapid adaptive radiation, but how it enables the formation of phenotypically highly dimensional species-rich radiations remains unclear. We investigated this by analysing genotype-phenotype associations for 14 ecological (trophic, body patterns) and mating traits (nuptial colour) across 107 species of Lake Victoria cichlid fishes. We find weak trait covariance across the radiation, with many different trait combinations constituting different species. Across the radiation, polygenic, redundant, and lowly pleiotropic genomic architectures of hybrid origin underlie the repeated evolution of key traits. Such independent genomic modules can be reshuffled and recombined like Lego bricks, generating diverse trait combinations from a finite number of elements. During speciation, dispersed oligogenic trait modules become coupled through long-range linkage disequilibrium. We propose that this genomic and phenotypic modularity emerged from repeated cycles of past hybridisation, enabling superfast adaptive radiation through combinatorial speciation.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2025

Genomes reveal age and demographic consequence of ultrafast adaptive radiation

New species typically evolve over several million years1. However, rates of speciation and ecological diversification vary by orders of magnitude across the tree of life1-3, with the fastest shown by some adaptive radiations. Eight hundred endemic species of cichlid fishes emerged and formed entire food webs in Lake Victoria and nearby lakes in East Africa. According to Victorias paleolimnological history4, five hundred may have arisen within the past 16,700 years, but molecular phylogenies estimated a much older origin5-8. We reconstruct the age and demography of all Lake Victoria region radiations from whole genomes. We show that indeed, in Lake Victoria all trophic guilds diverged <16,700 years ago, corresponding to between 537 and nearly 30000 speciation events per species per million years, the fastest speciation rate in metazoans1,2. Cichlid radiations in lakes Edward, Albert and Kivu too began <20,000 years ago, an order of magnitude faster than previously thought. Evolutionary transitions between trophic levels led to divergence in effective population sizes as predicted by the trophic pyramid of numbers concept9 and replicated across three parallel food web radiations. Our results demonstrate that classical theory of trophic interactions in ecologically assembled food webs applies equally to food webs that assembled through rapid adaptive radiation.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2023

Narwhal (Monodon monoceros) echolocation click rates to support cue counting passive acoustic density estimation

Estimating animal abundance is fundamental for effective management and conservation. It is increasingly done by combining passive acoustics with knowledge about rates at which animals produce cues (cue rates). Narwhals (Monodon monoceros) are elusive marine mammals for which passive acoustic density estimation might be plausible, but for which cue rates are lacking. Clicking rates in narwhals were investigated using a pre-existing dataset from sound and movement tag records collected in August 2013-2016 and 2019 in East Greenland. Clicking rates were quantified for[~] 1200 one-second-long systematic random samples from 8 different whales. Generalized Additive Models were used to model (1) the probability of being in a clicking state versus depth; and (2) the clicking rate while in a clicking state, versus time and depth. The probability of being in a clicking state increased with depth, reaching[~] 1.0 at[~] 500 meters, while the number of clicks per second (while in a clicking state) increased with depth. The mean cue production rate, weighted by tag duration, was 1.28 clicks per second (se= 0.13, CV= 0.10). This first cue rate for narwhals may be used for cue counting density estimation, but care should be taken if applying it to other geographical areas or seasons.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2022

Hybridization and a mixture of small and large-effect loci facilitate adaptive radiation

Adaptive radiations represent some of the most remarkable explosions of diversification across the tree of life. However, the constraints to rapid diversification and how they are sometimes overcome, particularly the relative roles of genetic architecture and hybridization, remain unclear. Here, we address these questions in the Alpine whitefish radiation, using a whole-genome dataset that includes multiple individuals of each of the 22 species belonging to six ecologically distinct ecomorph classes across several lake-systems. We reveal that repeated ecological and morphological diversification along a common environmental axis is associated with both genome-wide allele frequency shifts and a specific, larger effect, locus, associated with the gene edar. Additionally, we highlight the role of introgression between species from different lake-systems in facilitating the evolution and persistence of species with unique phenotypic combinations and ecology. These results highlight the role of both genome architecture and secondary contact with hybridization in fuelling adaptive radiation.

evolutionary biology↗