What Do Lake Malawi Cichlid Fishes See?

马拉维湖慈鲷鱼看到什么？

• 批准号: 0654076
• 负责人: Karen Carleton
• 金额: $ 2.71万
• 依托单位: University of Maryland, College Park
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2006-08-01 至 2008-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0654076&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: What; Do; Lake; Malawi; Cichlid

The cichlid fishes of the Great Lakes of East Africa are a classic example of rapid adaptive radiation. Hundreds of species of these fishes have evolved from a common ancester in the past one million years. Their rapid speciation is thought to result in part from sexual selection, in which female mate preferences drive the evolution of male color patterns. As male color patterns change to better match the preferences of females, fish with these new color patterns become new species which no longer interbreed with fish having the old color patterns. In order to understand how this happens, we need to know how cichlids choose mates. This requires an understanding of t he visual sensitivities of these fish and whether visual sensitivities differ among species. This project will examine several aspects of visual communication in the cichlid fishes of Lake Malawi, Africa. First, we will quantify the diversity of visual sensitivities in a broad range of cichlid species by sequencing the five cone opsin genes and measuring their relative expression levels in the retina. We already know that some Malawi cichlids are sensitive to ultraviolet wavelengths while others are not. This survey will determine whether ultraviolet sensitivity is widespread in this group and how it evolved. Second, we will measure the hues of cichlid color patterns as compared to their natural environment. This will determine whether color patterns also contain significant contributions in the ultraviolet part of the spectrum. Third, we will relate the visual system and color patterns in order to determine the conspicuousness of the color patterns as seen"through cichlid eyes." These studies will be related to ecological or behavioral factors to determine whether color usage is modified in different localities or under different social situations. We will also examine the importance of water quality and optical transmission for visual communication. Lake Malawi has historically been one of the clearest lakes in the world. Maintaining its clarity may be an important factor in preserving the spectacular diversity of these fishes.The proposed effort will provide important scientific contributions to our understanding of how species diversity arises and is maintained. In addition, this work will integrate biological and physical approaches to understanding visual communication. It will also support the scientific training of a minority graduate student who will be fully funded by this project.

东非五大湖的慈鱼是快速适应辐射的典型例子。在过去的一百万年里，数百种这种鱼从一个普通的物种进化而来。它们的快速物种形成被认为部分是由性别选择造成的，在性别选择中，女性配偶的偏好推动了男性颜色模式的进化。随着雄性颜色图案的变化以更好地匹配雌性的喜好，具有这些新颜色图案的鱼成为不再与具有旧颜色图案的鱼杂交的新物种。为了理解这是如何发生的，我们需要知道慈鱼是如何选择配偶的。这需要了解这些鱼的视觉敏感度，以及不同物种的视觉敏感度是否不同。这个项目将研究非洲马拉维湖慈济鱼视觉交流的几个方面。首先，我们将通过对五个视锥视蛋白基因进行测序并测量它们在视网膜中的相对表达水平，来量化广泛的慈鱼物种视觉敏感度的多样性。我们已经知道马拉维的一些慈鱼对紫外线敏感，而另一些则不敏感。这项调查将确定紫外线敏感性在这一群体中是否普遍存在，以及它是如何演变的。其次，我们将测量与其自然环境相比较的池鱼颜色图案的色调。这将决定颜色图案是否也包含光谱中紫外线部分的重要贡献。第三，我们将把视觉系统和颜色图案联系起来，以确定通过慈济眼球看到的颜色图案的显着性。这些研究将与生态或行为因素相关，以确定颜色的使用是否在不同的地方或不同的社会情况下被改变。我们还将研究水质和光传输对视觉通信的重要性。马拉维湖历来是世界上最清澈的湖泊之一。保持其清晰度可能是保护这些鱼类壮观多样性的一个重要因素。拟议的努力将为我们理解物种多样性是如何产生和维持的提供重要的科学贡献。此外，这项工作将结合生物学和物理学的方法来理解视觉交流。它还将支持由该项目全额资助的一名少数民族研究生的科学培训。