Scholarship 21/11169-2 - Adaptação, Evolução - BV FAPESP
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Transcriptomics and molecular evolution of genes associated with adaptation in arowanas (Osteoglossiformes, Osteoglossidae).

Grant number: 21/11169-2
Support Opportunities:Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
Start date until: June 01, 2023
End date until: August 01, 2026
Field of knowledge:Biological Sciences - Genetics - Animal Genetics
Principal Investigator:Marcelo de Bello Cioffi
Grantee:Fernando Henrique Santos de Souza
Host Institution: Centro de Ciências Biológicas e da Saúde (CCBS). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
Associated scholarship(s):24/15521-0 - Genetic basis of adaptive traits in South American Arowanas, BE.EP.DR

Abstract

In South America, particularly in the Amazon region, two endemic species of the Osteoglossiformes order are found, the silver arowana (Osteoglossum bicirrhossum) and the black arowana (O. ferrerai), which diverged about 6 million years ago. While the silver arowana, occurs with a wide distribution in the Amazon and Orinoco basins, and the Rupununie and Oiapoque rivers (clear waters), the black arowana occurs is restricted to the dark waters of the Rio Negro and Rio Tomo basins. One of the great interests of evolutionary biology is to investigate genes and mechanisms related to adaptive processes, and South American arowanas adapted to different environments offer a unique opportunity for sets of characteristics linked to signaling (i.e. body color) and perception of visual stimuli to be investigated in a parapatric context. In the present project, integrative transcriptomics, molecular evolution and genomic approaches will be used to understand the molecular basis of the color phenotype and the visual system in these species, as well as to investigate the evolutionary implications of the adaptive divergence of this set of traits. Differential expression analyzes will be carried out between species to find the main sequences differentially expressed, with emphasis on the visual and staining system. The project seeks to test the correlated evolution of signal and receptor phenotypes and their potential roles as adaptive elements in the colonization of new environments. The understanding of genetic characteristics in traits related to adaptation is an extremely important step for further studies to understand the role of an abrupt environmental difference for the processes related to the adaptation and origin of these species. This project is an integral part of ongoing support from FAPESP (Process 2020/11772-8) and represents a continuation of the studies by the Laboratory of Fish Cytogenetics in Osteoglossiform fishes, contributing to a greater understanding of the genetic mechanisms behind the evolutionary process of this group of primitive fishes.

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