Dissertation Research: Dissecting the genetic basis of craniofacial variation in the threespine stickleback

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Little is known about the genetic basis of evolution to novel environments in natural populations. Addressing this problem is of broad importance because populations of organisms increasingly need to either adapt to a changing environment or go extinct. Few studies have identified genes important for adaptation in natural populations. This research into the rapid evolution of the vertebrate head offers a unique opportunity to conduct a statistically high-powered study on individuals that have undergone adaptive evolution in less than 50 years. The results of this study could provide insight into the genetic and developmental mechanisms of rapid evolution.The vertebrate head is an impressive structure that houses some of the most important organs. Across vertebrates head shapes are diverse, and much of this variation appears adaptive. In contrast the early programs of head shape development are highly conserved across vertebrates. This begs the question; where in the conserved genetic programs of head development does variation lie to direct such a diversity of head shapes? This question will be answered by identifying genes that underlie head shape variation in the threespine stickleback fish. New methods of visualizing and measuring head morphology will be used in conjunction with genomic data from a pedigreed threespine stickleback population to map genomic regions regions associated with head shape variation.