SCIENCE AT THE EDGE SEMINAR SERIES

Quantitative Biology & Modeling Seminar

Friday, 20 April 2012 at 11:30am

Room 1400 Biomedical and Physical Sciences Bldg.

Refreshments at 11:15

Speaker: R. Craig Albertson
         Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Title:   Toward the Origin of Craniofacial Diversity in Cichlid Fishes:
         Patterns, Processes and Mechanisms

Abstract:

East African rift lake cichlids provide striking examples of adaptive
radiation, and offer a unique opportunity to identify and examine the factors
that contribute to organismal "evolvability". Using the feeding apparatus as a
paradigm, we show that relatively simple morphological alterations in cichlid
trophic anatomy have evolved repeatedly in the African rift lakes, and that
these changes constitute a critical component of their adaptive radiation in
functional morphology.  We show further that the most pronounced shifts in
anatomy occur within a single variational module that is integrated by a
combination of functional and genetic processes.  Finally, we offer insights
into the proximate molecular genetic changes that underlie adapative shifts in
the shape of this module.  In all, this research program is leading to a better
mechanistic understanding of cichlid trophic diversification, and thus the
factors that have contributed to the evolutionary potential of this group.